Arcadia's Marquee Event Seems To Stretch The Limits Of Plausibility Year After Year, From Chris Solinsky To Simeon Birnbaum, As Times Keep Getting Faster

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

DyeStat Archival photos (Kirby Lee, Chuck Utash, Ken Martinez)

For all of the highlights on Chris Solinsky’s racing resume, from NCAA titles to an American record, his high school performances at the Arcadia Invitational stand out as important moments that elevated his name and made him a high school distance running legend.

Solinsky, now a distance coach at the University of Oregon, won back-to-back Arcadia 3,200-meter titles in 2002 and 2003 that helped cement an early April eight-lap track race east of Los Angeles into a national focal point. 

“It was special,” Solinsky said of the Arcadia boys 3,200. “When I won junior year, it was somewhat of a surprise to me as I was still somewhat unsure of how good I could be in the sport. However, the first thing that came to my mind when I finished was: ‘Now I have to do this again next year?’ Knowing people were going to try to take me down, it motivated me to continue to train hard and try to keep progressing.”

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Spurred by desire to hold onto his Arcadia title, Solinsky turned himself into the dominant runner of the 2002-03 school year. He won Foot Locker (two years before the advent of Nike Team Nationals). 

He made a second trip west from Stevens Point, Wis. to sunny California and won the 3,200 in 8:43.24. 

The boys 3,200 at Arcadia has a history that spans decades, but Solinsky came through and helped elevate it into a spring-time version of Foot Locker. 

It has evolved into a race that the entire running community stops to watch. 

How many will run under 9 minutes? How fast will this year’s winner go?

The magic seems to extend further into the invitational field, and into the seeded races, every year.

A year ago, a total of 44 boys went under nine minutes, with 16 dipping under 8:50 and three under 8:40. Simeon Birnbaum of Rapid City Stevens High in South Dakota ran to a meet record 8:34.10, kicking past Daniel Simmons (8:34.14) of American Fork UT and Rocky Hansen (8:34.78) of Christ School NC. 

“Last year, it was incomparable to any other race,” Simmons said. “The amount of people cheering and screaming their lungs out is insanity, enough to make the decision of pressing for the championship till the last step absolutely worth it.”

Twenty-one years ago, when Solinsky won his second Arcadia title, a total of 11 boys broke nine minutes. 

But year after year, meet director Rich Gonzalez manages to coax a few more of the country’s top runners to come, and the pace revs faster and faster. 

“If anything, I think (Arcadia) changed people’s expectations of what they could accomplish and set a new standard of what fast was,” Solinsky said. “Arcadia is just a great meet and set up to bring the nation’s best together in all events to compete. When you do that great things happen.”

On Saturday night, after the sun sets over the Pacific and the glaring lights begin to shine bright on the Arcadia High School stadium, with the crowd hanging on the edges of chain-linked fences, the energy turns up a notch.

At Salter Stadium, limits have been tested, barriers have been broken and standards have been incrementally raised. 

The Arcadia Invitational – fueled by the talent at hundreds of Southern California high schools – is, after all, the home of national records. The meet has produced 35 national records and 203 eventual U.S. Olympians.  

The meet’s cache lures in athletes from all over the U.S. and Canada. 

“We all get an opportunity to really see the best of the best in the same race at least once in a season,” said coach Doug Soles, formerly at Great Oak in Temecula, Calif. and now at Herriman in Utah.

“Any (coach) that has a great athlete is blessed to have the opportunity to showcase how good their athlete really is at Arcadia,” he said. 

A meet noted over the years for its relay depth, high quality field events, sprints and multis competition was not always such a touchstone for distance running.

Between 1968-1980 the meet first contested the 2-mile and then 3,000-meter races. Ten boys in 12 years ran the equivalent of a sub-nine 3,200 meters. 

Terry Williams of Lompoc CA ran the first sub-nine-minute performance in meet history in 1972 when he ran 8 minutes, 57.2 seconds to run away from Santa Ana CA's Marc Genet, who ran 9:01.8 to tie his own meet record from the year before.

Four years later, the meet saw its first two athletes run under 8:50: Thom Hunt of Patrick Henry CA in 8:45.2 and Eric Hulst of Laguna Beach CA in 8:47.4. 

The 1980s and 1990s represented a dry spell in distance racing nationally. The meet switched the distance to the 3,200 meters in 1981 and only 13 boys broke nine minutes through the rest of the century.  

The meet itself continued to grow, and thrive, under the legendary Arcadia teacher and meet director, Doug Speck. 

Gonzalez took over the meet director duties in 2001 and started building up the 3,200-meter invitational field. That year, Bobby Lockhart of Winchester VA won it in 8:57.08 and Chandler Goodwin of Mountain View UT was second in 8:58.57.

A year later, the number of boys under nine minutes tripled, including two more under 8:50: Solinsky and Brett Schoolmeester.

Solinsky and Schoolmeester were the first duo to break 8:50 since Hunt and Hulst at the 1976 meet.

Gonzalez also turned the meet into a two-day event in 2003, which provided more flexibility for schools traveling in from out of state.  

By the end of the 2000s decade, 40 boys broke nine minutes. It began a chain reaction that continued to blossom through the 2010s. 

Girls Carve Out A Piece Of The Spotlight

However, the boys weren’t the only ones who garnered attention in the new decade - the girls were just getting started, thanks to Sarah Baxter.

The Simi Valley High star won three consecutive girls 3,200 races from 2011-2013 and remains the only three-time champion for the girls or boys race in meet history.

Baxter was injured her senior year and unable to go for a four-peat. Alexa Efraimson from Camas High in Washington showed up, instead, looking to make her own history. 

Efraimson became the first girl in Arcadia Invitational history to break the 10-minute barrier when she ran 9:55.92. That broke the record of another legend, Jordan Hasay of Mission College Prep CA, who had run 10:03.07 in 2008.

“The goal was to run a national record,” Efraimson said. “Running a 3,200 at that time in the season was planned to help set me up for success in the 1,500/1,600 later in the summer. I was so excited for this race and felt so confident that I ran the first 200 in 31-32 (seconds) and the first 400 in 67 (seconds). It burned me in the end, and I didn’t run a national record, but the race served as a good learning experience.”

Three years later at the 2017 meet, Claudia Lane of Malibu CA and Brie Oakley of Grandview CO joined Efraimson in the sub-10 club, with Lane running 9:57.52 and Oakley running 9:57.59.

“For the girls to follow at Arcadia, the (2014) performance showed it was possible to run under that barrier,” Efraimson said. “Though not the same notoriety, the 10-minute barrier for the girls 3,200 is comparable to the 4-minute barrier for the boys mile. Once one person breaks the barrier, it doesn’t seem as intimidating of a goal.”

In that same meet, 2017, a record 27 boys went under nine minutes, including St. Joseph Notre Dame CA’s Cooper Teare, who ran 8:41.46 to take down Hunt’s meet record from 1976 (8:42.30 3,200 conversion).

By the time the post-pandemic 2020s came around, the best of the best prep distance runners in the country were eager to get to Arcadia and test their limits.

In 2022, 32 boys ran under nine minutes, highlighted by the 8:40 barrier finally being broken by Newbury Park CA teammates Colin Sahlman (8:34.99) and Lex Young (8:35.72).

For the girls, Dalia Frias of Mira Costa CA became the fifth girl in meet history to run under 10 minutes, clocking a meet record performance of 9:55.50. 

Come 2023, it was hard to imagine what performances could top those from the year before.

To no surprise, both sides delivered, again. 

In addition to the 44 boys who ran under nine minutes, Morgantown WV’s Irene Riggs followed her dominant run at Nike Cross Nationals by running an Arcadia record time of 9:52.66. She was one of a record nine girls to break 10 minutes in the same race.  

Isabel Allori of Liberty Common CO, who finished fourth in 9:56.82, was among four of the nine girls from the state of Colorado under 10 minutes.

“Last year was a really special race for me, but also for that whole field,” Allori said. “At the end, I just remember looking at the board and there were all those times. It was just shocking, but it was a cool experience.”

Since 1968, the Arcadia Invitational has delivered life changing performances. 

This weekend, anticipation is heightened once again. 

Simmons, who broke the indoor boys 5,000 national record in Boston at New Balance Nationals Indoor last month, is the top returner on the boys side for the 3,200. He will face a compelling line-up that features Drew Griffith (Butler Area PA), Ryan Pajak (Ringgold PA), JoJo Jourdon (Olympus UT), Cameron Todd (Brebeuf Jesuit IN) and Nathan Neil (Bozeman MT).

“As the records have fallen year after year, the demand to be at Arcadia has grown and grown,” Simmons said. “So, as long as someone believes they can beat the records, Arcadia will be the race to be at.”

Allori headlines the girls 3,200 invitational race coming off a second-place finish at New Balance Nationals Indoor in the girls two-mile in 9:48.20. Joining her as other headliners will be Addy Ritzenhein (Niwot CO), Jane Hedengren (Timpview UT), Sophia Rodriguez (Mercer Island WA) and Emily Wisniewski (Crescent Valley OR).

“The main thing is to compete honestly,” Allori said. “It’s less about the time for me because I know it’s going to be a super strong field…I just want to focus more on the competition than time.”

Time after time, Arcadia has proven that what once seemed impossible is possible. 

Whether it’s the new shoe tech, the track, or the training, racing has gone beyond what was once expected, especially at the Arcadia Invitational.

The numbers speak for themselves: 

321 boys under nine minutes.

14 girls under 10 minutes.

There isn’t anything else like it.