A few San Diego athletes stood out in the Friday  portion of the Arcadia Invitational.

Doton Ogundeji of Madison led a group of discus throwers at 169 feet, 8 inches, third best in the County.

Four Mt. Carmel runners averaged 1:57.63 in each of their 800-meter legs as part of the 4×800 seeded races.  Mt. Carmel’s time of 7:51.052 was good for ninth overall, while four Del Norte runners averaged 1:59.5 and were 12th overall in 7:58.17.

Meanwhile in San Diego Section dual meets Friday,  state leader Brenden Song of West Hills wafted the discus 191-5, his all-time best, in a dual meet with Helix.  El Camino’s Jamal Newman moved into second place in the County with a throw of 177-7  against Vista. Xander Law of Otay Ranch cleared 15-6 in the pole vault against Bonita Vista to take the County lead.

Newman and Law now are sixth in the state in their respective events.

“Arcadia is the big one,” says Steve Brand.  “It’s the first real indicator of what to expect in the important, late-season meets in May and June.”

The Arcadia Invitational track meet at Arcadia High, east of Pasadena, begins this evening and by around 10 p.m. Saturday, April 6, more than 4,000 high school athletes will have trod its all-weather track and modern runways and pits.

Those that came before include 152 Olympians, many of whom were involved in the 25 national records that have been set in what has become the largest outdoor high school meet in the country.

“The elite compete Saturday afternoon,” said Brand.  “The elite of the elite compete Saturday evening,”

Brand should know.  He has covered almost every one for The San Diego Union and UT-San Diego since the first in 1968 and no one has a better  pulse of the area prep track scene.

The area’s outstanding track heritage is reflected in the three meet records  held by San Diego athletes, not to mention state-leading performances and all-time County efforts.

Monique Henderson set the girls’ 400-meter record of :52.51 in 2001.  Brent Noon of Fallbrook hurled the 12-pound  shot  71 feet, 4 ¼ inches in 1990, and Thom Hunt of Patrick Henry ran 3,200 meters in 8:42.30 in 1976.

No one has made those kinds of early impressions this spring and Brand describes the 2013 San Diego Section season thus far as “not very strong,” but he added that “someone always come out of the weeds at Arcadia.”

West Hills’ Brenden Song is the San Diego section’s lone state leader with a 188-foot discus throw.  Song was second in the state meet in Clovis in 2012 with a heave of 188-11, Section No. 11 all time.

Arcadia and its importance as a “coming out” meet of the season is symptomatic of the decline of dual meets, once the anchor of  prep track.

League dual meet champions are still decided but they receive almost no mention in daily newspapers.  Marks usually are available only in on-line services.

“There’s an invitational meet every weekend this year,” said Brand.  “I’ve seen some dramatic dual meets over the years, fans and students screaming as a meet came down to who wins the relay, but that’s not the way of the world now.”

On April 17, 1937, John Fawcett of Coronado High came out of the chute on the straightaway at Chaffey High in Ontario and traversed 440 yards in 49.5 seconds.

Fawcett handily won his one-turn race in the Chaffey Invitational and set a San Diego County record that would last nine years and a school record that stood for 24 years.

Mr. Fawcett passed away recently in San Diego at age 93.

Fawcett’s County 440-yard record was bettered by San Diego High’s Norman Stocks, who ran :49.3 in winning the Southern Section championship in 1946 in Balboa Stadium.

Scott Knox broke Fawcett’s school record and Stocks’ County record when Knox won the San Diego Section championship in :49.2 at Kearny in 1961.

Fawcett went on to play football and compete in track at Redlands University.

After more than 30 years in education and athletics in the Panama Canal Zone, Mr. Fawcett and his family returned to San Diego and he retired in Rancho Bernardo, according   to UT-San Diego.