A West Hills athlete dominated Saturday in the Arcadia Invitational, but it wasn’t state-leading discus thrower Brenden Song.

Sophomore Melissa Mongiovi, running in the afternoon seeded session, blew out a :55.28, for the overall first-place finish in the Girls’ 400-meter run.  The best the invitational runners could do in  the evening was :56.18.

Song, who increased his state best to 191-5 on Friday in a dual meet with Helix, was fourth in the discus in the evening invitational session with a best of 181-7.

Song trailed Damon Unland of Washington’s Spokane Ferris (190-3), Marty Taylor of Newport Beach Newport Harbor (186-4), and Dylan Fischer of Phoenix Desert Vista (182-7).

Mongiovi now ranks 10th in the country this year and San Diego Section No. 9 all-time.  She ran in the 2012 state meet and had a best of :55.72 as a freshman.

Carlsbad’s Christian Freeman was ninth in the 3,200 run but his 8:52.65 is eighth all time in San Diego, just below the 8:51.94 by San Diego’s Meb Keflezighi in 1994 and the 8:52.44 by Chula Vista’s Tim Danielson in 1966.

Alex Grigoriev of Rancho Bernardo ran 1:52.71 in the Boys’ 800 and was fifth.

Otay Ranch’s Alexander Law, who went 15-6 in the pole vault on Friday in a dual meet against Bonita Vista improved his season best to 15-9 and won the afternoon competition. Law’s teammate Carina Gillespie was fifth in the invitational 800 in 2:13.

La Costa Canyon’s Emma Abrahamson was 10th in the 3,200 at 10:36.01.

Granite Hills Jake Johnson ran :14.60 in the 110-meter high hurdles and Scripps Ranch’s Brian Thomas circled the 400-meter oval in :49.22.

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.

Reggie Bush’s high school career ended on a quiet note, but its brilliance probably outshone any other in the 42-year history of the San Diego Section.

Bush scored 75 touchdowns and rushed for 60 touchdowns in three seasons.  He caught passes for nine TD’s, and returned 6 punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns. He even  punted 27 times for a 34.9-yard average.

Every time Bush ran from scrimmage he averaged more than a first down.

Bush averaged 8.8 yards, scored 11 touchdowns, and gained 1,034 yards as a sophomore.  He rushed for 26 touchdowns and averaged 12 yards and gained 2,200 as a junior.

Bush sustained a wrist injury that slowed him in two games and forced him to sit out another as a senior but he still averaged 12 yards from scrimmage, scored 23 touchdowns, and gained 1,691 yards.

It was in the open field where Bush was most dangerous.  He caught 40 passes for an 18.4-yard average, averaged 17.8 yards on 42 punt returns, and 37.1 yards for 15 kickoff returns.

Bush’s 26 touchdown runs as a junior averaged 36 yards.  He averaged 34.8 yards for 6 touchdown receptions, and 84.5 yards on two punt returns for scores.

Bush’s 60 rushing touchdowns were accomplished in 3 seasons.  Leader Markeith Ross of Rancho Buena  Vista rushed for 72 touchdowns in 4 seasons.  La Jolla Country Day’s Rashaan Salaam rushed for 105 touchdowns in three seasons, mostly in 8-man football.

St. Augustine’s 6-0 run through the San Diego Section, Southern California regionals, and CIF State championship game resulted in the Saints making a huge leap to overall  No. 10 in Cal-Hi Sports’ final rankings for 2012-13.

Horizon finished No. 1 in Division V.

The Saints were “On the Bubble”, meaning unranked, at the end of the regular season.

Coach Mike Haupt’s club made its way up the ladder by shaking a three-game loss streak against Cathedral Catholic and winning the San Diego Section III title;

Overcame an 11-point four-quarter disadvantage versus West Hills Chaminade in the regional finals;

And fought off San Francisco Cathedral Sacred Heart in overtime in Sacramento for the State D-III championship.

The Saints’ 29-4 record was attained while losing to only two teams, thrice to Cathedral Catholic and once to Sacramento Sheldon.

Sheldon, 27-6, was fifth in the final Cal-Hi poll and Cathedral, 29-5, was 30^th.  The top four were Santa Ana Mater Dei, 34-2; Etiwanda, 28-4; Long Beach Poly, 29-4, and San Jose Mitty, 28-6.

Other San Diego-area teams in Cal-Hi’s top 40 included Army-Navy, 29^th, and Mission Hills, 37^th.

Mission Hills was 15^th in the state in D-I, Hoover, 31-6, was sixth and San Marcos 11^th in D-II.  St. Augustine was second  to Bellflower St. John Bosco, 24-7, in D-III and Cathedral fifth.

Army-Navy finished fourth in  D-IV.

Horizon, which also had a 6-0 run in the playoffs, improved to 21-11 overall and defeated Alameda St. Joseph Notre Dame 47-46 in Sacramento to jump to the top spot in D-V.  Foothills Christian, 19-15, climbed to ninth.