The top-flight competition brought out the best in Nick Scarvelis on Saturday night at the 44th annual Arcadia Invitational track and field meet.
Going up against some of the best shot putters in the state, the Dos Pueblos senior threw a state-best 64-01.75 to win the boys invitational shot put at the prestigious meet. The mark, coming on his last throw, surpasses his previous best of 62-6.
Scarvelis defeated his closest rival in the state, Steven Boals of Sacramento-Jesuit, who had a best throw of 62-02.5.
Scarvelis went over 60 feet on all of his legal throws — 64-1.75, 63-7.75, 61-7, 61-8.25, 60-11.75 and 64-1.75.
In other events involving DP athletes, sophomore Bryan Fernandez finished seventh in the Rising Stars Mile in a time of 4:27.32. The winner was Blake Haney of Stockdale in 4:18.11.
Sergey Sushchikh beat his previous season-best time by 11 seconds in the seeded 3200, clocking 9:12.32 to finish 11th. The winning time was 9:04.62 by Daniel Wong of Canyon Del Oro, Ariz.
In the Women’s Open shot put, DP freshman Stamatia Scarvelis placed 15th in 36-0.25. She was competing a day after completing the heptathlon. Brianna French of Vacaville won the event in 41-8.75.
Briggs Deardoff of Santa Barbara finshed 14th in the open mile in a season-best 4:20.95. The winning time was 4:14.66 by Chris Waschura of Woodside.
Robert Palmer of the Dons clocked 15.82 in the seeded 110 hurdles.
Elysia Hodges of San Marcos won her heat in the 300 hurdles in personal-best of 44.71, which was good enough for third place overall in the girls open 300 hurdles.
Carpinteria’s Shelby Dunlap finished fourth in her heat and placed 20th overall in 46.75.
Shane Rowan of San Marcos took sixth place in the open triple jump with a mark of 45-3 and Hannah McDaniel of the Royals finished fifth in the girls invitational high jump with a leap of 5-4.
The Royals’ 4×400 girls relay team finished sixth in a very competitive race. Its time was season-best 3:53.94, ranking the Royals in the top 25 in the nation. Serra won with the second-best time in the nation at 3:47.12 and St. Mary’s Academy finished second in 3:49.59.
Members of the San Marcos team are Hodges, Kaylin Koopmans, McDaniel and Marie Brashears.
San Marcos coach Marilyn Hantgin said Brashears ran 1.5 seconds faster than she ever has before.
“We have amazing athletes,” Hantgin said. “We went up against some amazing girls, and we stepped up.”
