Missourians Converge On Historic Arcadia Invitational

Apr 11, 2025

The historic Arcadia Invitational takes place once again at the high school in Arcadia, California, drawing in top teams and individual athletes from around the country. Missouri will be sending a strong delegate to the west coast to compete in the two-day meet this year.

Often known for its ridiculously fast 3200 meter races, the beautiful California weather typically plays well for midwestern and northern states athletes looking for a reprieve from the volatility of their own spring season weather. We have seen some of the state's top all-time performances over the years, including a 21.06 and 46.22 200/400 marks from Justin Robinson in 2019, a 4:11.87 1600 from Amos Bartelsmeyer in 2013, and sub-9:00 3200 performances from Connor Burns (state record 8:41.67 in 2023), Austin Hindman (previous state record 8:43.40 in 2017), Noah Kauppila (8:54.45), Andrew Hauser (8:58.72), Stephen Mugeche (8:58.87), and Devin Meyrer (8:59.17).

Photo: Raymond Tran

We have also seen stellar performances on the girls' side, particularly from Cardinal Ritter's ladies (Kyndall Spain, most notably, with her 13.67 +1.6m/s 100m Hurdles and 42.43 300m Hurdles performances last year). They also blazed a 45.89 4x100m Relay State record in 2024, 1:41.34 4x200, and 3:50.44 4x400. Samantha Levin ran 2:09.48 in 2011. Meredith Snow's old State record 3200 mark came here in 2006 (10:19.71), and Hannah Long nearly bested it with a 10:20.65 run in 2014. Makayla Mason cleared 51 meters in the Discus in 2018 and her former Lee's Summit West teammates almost broke the State record in the 4x800m Relay with a 9:15.43 mark in 2019, the fastest April time we have ever seen.