Senior hurdler Steven Scarvelis was the performer of the day for the Dos Pueblos track team down at the Arcadia Invitational Saturday. Scarvelis broke his own school record in the 300 hurdles during the day meet, running a 39.01 (his old mark was 39.86) to qualify him to run in a finals at night. After the six-hour layover, he came back to break his own record with a time of 38.53, good enough for second place.
Juniors Carly and Samantha Wopat competed in the discus and high jump, respectively. Carly threw what may have been a new school record, but the official at the ring raised the red flag to indicate a foul throw and the field marking official walked away from the mark.
Upon hearing the objection from the more than 200 in attendance, the official realized he had raised the wrong flag and corrected his error. But it was too late and the field event judge had already walked away from the mark. He shuffled back and tried to remark where he thought it had hit, but Kuderka said DP coaches and spectators alike did not agree.
Carly ended up being credited with a 131′ 2″ throw — just 10 inches from the school record and good enough for second place. Samantha also garnered 2nd place in high jump. Setting a new personal best, 5’5″, she cleared on first attempts at 4’11, 5’1″, and 5’3″ before clearing 5’5″ on her 3rd attempt.
Thursday and Friday got off to a great start for DP, as a pair of Chargers competed in the second hosting of the Arcadia Multis. Junior Tim Park improved his decathlon total to just under 5,000 points to place 9th while Senior Patrick Smith improved his point total from last year by more than 400 points to repeat his 2nd place performance. Smith was only bested by an athlete from New Mexico that ended up setting a new national record in the decathlon scoring 7,909 points (full results on www.arcadiainvitational.com).
There were 15 decathletes that started the meet and only 10 survived the grueling 10 event competition over the course of two days.
Saturday saw more success for DP as Sophomore Nicholas Scarvelis placed 5th in the discus with a 155′ 5″ effort. He also competed in the coveted Invitational section in the evening for Shot Put and placed well in an ilite field of the nation’s best throwers. Up against tough competition he pulled out a 52’11” throw.
“This was some great experience for a very young thrower with a great future ahead of himself,” said coach Dave Kuderka.
DP looks forward to Thursday at home against Santa Barbara, and Kuderka said the team is focused on earning a few more qualifying marks for the April 25th County Championships at Carpinteria HS.
