The Irish have qualified two relay teams, the Girls 4X800 Relay and the Girls Sprint Medley Relay, for the 2026 Arcadia Invitational, April 10-11, at Arcadia High School in Southern California.
The Arcadia Invitational is in its 58 th year and is considered the most competitive high school track & field invitational of the year. Over the years 36 national records have been set at Arcadia and 206 future Olympians (including our own Shannon Rowbury '02) have competed at Arcadia.
This year, a record 836 schools (including a record 337 schools from outside California) registered for the meet, with a record 691 schools being accepted (and more than 4000 athletes).
"Qualifying for Arcadia is a big deal," said SHC head coach Andy Chan, "It means you are among the best not just locally but in the state. And you're going to get to compete with high caliber athletes from all over. The energy and excitement level in the stadium is unmatched and I am glad our kids will get to experience that."
Running for the Irish in the 4X800 will be Annabel Chung '28, Annalisa Covucci '28, Veronica Panina '26, and Maya Pfalzer '27. They qualified by running a time of 9:38.81 at the Dublin Distance Fiesta in March. That time ranks 5 th in the CCS this year and is just five seconds away from the school record set at CCS Finals in May 2025.
Running for SHC in the Sprint Medley Relay (which is 100 meters-100 meters-200 meters-400 meters) will be Tati Petkovic '26, Beya Maxfield '28, Tessa Wehrle '26, and Annalee Nist '29. That team (with Ava Lindner '28 running the 400 leg instead of Nist) qualified by running a school record 1:48.81 at the Castro Valley Relays in March.
Last year at Arcadia, SHC placed 7 th /16 teams in the seeded division at Arcadia. This will be the first Arcadia for all the girls in the 4X800 and freshman Nist. It will be Maxfield and Petkovic's second time at Arcadia, and the third trip (and fifth race) for Wehrle.
Arcadia Livestream:
https://www.arcadiainvitational.org/eprofile.php?event_id=63&do=videos&year=2026&folder_id=3985&year=2026
Results:
https://www.rtspt.com/events/arcadia/2026/
