Kauppila and Long in California looking for Missouri records/national marks at Arcadia Invitational

Kauppila trying to surpass Olympian Tegenkamp, Long looking for Missouri and School Record

Hannah Long Invitational 3200m 8:40 p.m PST (10:40 CST)

Noah Kauppila Invitational 3200m 8:55 p.m. PST (10:55 CST)

Info: http://www.arcadiainvitational.org/

Schedule

Live Results: http://live.episports.com/

Webcast: http://live.arcadiainvitational.org.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/live.html

 

Saturday night Hannah Long will take to the track at 8:40 p.m. PST (10:40 CST) and Noah Kauppila right after at 8:55 p.m. at the Arcadia Invitational track and field meet outside of Los Angeles, California, looking to break the Missouri high school 3200 meters records and post two of the fastest times in the country this season.

Both already have resumes that put them among the very best all-time when it comes to Missouri prep runners. But on Saturday night they’ll have the chance to put themselves at the top of their respective performance lists in the 3200 meters in Missouri. They’ll also have the opportunity to show why they should be considered one of the few best in the country.

Long will join Kauppila, who competed in the meet last year, as Missourians to compete in what’s almost certainly the premier regular season high school track and field meet in the country annually. Last year Kauppila made the trip to Arcadia for what’s become annually the best individual event competition in the country, the Men’s Invitational 3200 meters. Last years race featured 28 runners, 16 of them broke the nine-minute mark. Kauppila ran 8:54.45 and took 12th! In 2012, Festus Senior Drew White made the trip with his dad and Coach Bryant Wright. With a packed stadium cheering, White mixed it up in the dense pack and held on to finish in 9:04, good for 23rd in field of 31 runners. Needless to say the number of quality competitors, and the atmosphere provides for great opportunities for elite performances.

This year will be the 47th edition of the Arcadia Invitational, which began in 1968. Thousands of athletes from across the country make the trip to compete against the best convergence of talent anywhere during the high school season.The meet is directed by Rich Gonzalez, one of the top high school running, cross country, and track and field analysts and commentators in the country. He and his partners run prepcaltrack.com, the leading source of coverage of the sports in California at the high school level. Previously Rich worked covering the sport with his California Dyestat website. He can be seen annually on the Nike Cross National broadcast covering the event in Portland. Coming into the weekend, the meet boasted 24 national high school records, and has seen 152 of it’s athletes go on to become U.S. Olympians.

For Kauppila, it may be the best chance he’ll have to better Matt Tegenkamp’s Missouri record of 8:53.79, The Lee’s Summit senior set the mark in June 2000, at the Golden West Invitational in California, taking second place. After a great 2012 cross country regular season, Kauppila had an off day at State, placing 20th at the 2012 MSHSAA Missouri Class 4 State Cross Country Meet. Kauppila followed with somewhat disappointing finishes at the Nike and Foot Locker Midwest Regional meets in November of 2012, but rebounded with a solid showing at the USATF Cross Country Championships Men’s Jr 8k. Kauppila opened his junior track season in style at Arcadia. Kauppila soaked up the loud music and crowd as well as the fast pace, and road it to the finish in 8:54.45, just 2/3’s of a second behind two-time Olympian and US two-mile record holder Tegenkamp’s mark.

Long will look to improve on her 3200 meter best that came in a dramatic race at the 2013 Festus Tiger Town Invitational on a Tuesday night, just over a year ago. Long pushed the pace early, battling Ste. Genevieve freshman Taylor Werner. The two flew around the track under the lights before Werner pulled away down the homestretch to win in 10:25.88, while Long was just behind in 10:27.49, moving the two phenoms to third and fifth on the Missouri All-Time performance list. That was until two weeks ago.

Despite not having the two All-Americans Long and Werner in the race, Festus senior Jamie Kempfer shocked everyone at the Festus Early Bird Track and Field Invitational, Saturday March 29. Still, in a loaded 3200m field of many Missouri Class 3 and 4 All-Staters that produced four sub 11-minute performances, Kempfer was gone with the gun. The 19th placer at the 2013 Nike Cross Nationals meet, earning her own All-American honor, took off from the field, including fellow Nike Cross Nationals qualifier Jill Whitman. Kempfer crossed the tape in 10:23.98, moving the Mizzou signee to second on the Missouri 3200 meter performance list, jumping the likes of Missouri distance legends Megan Thompson and Emily Sisson, both 4-time Foot Locker Cross Country Nationals finalists.

The ladies who used to sit 1-2 on the performance list, both happened to move from Omaha, Nebraska to West St. Louis County during high school. Meridith Snow moved the summer after her freshman year of high school in 2003, joining an already elite 1-2 punch for Coach Mark Kimball’s Eureka squad in Shannon Leinert and Kasey Kimball. Snow helped Eureka to tie for second-place at the 2004  Class 4 state meet after winning the 1600, 3200, and running a leg on the state-record setting 4×800. Eureka and Jefferson City scored 75 points while Gateway totaled 78 points for the state title, with Hazelwood Central taking fourth with 68 points.

Snow, Kimball, and Leinert went on to earn All-American Distance Medley Relay honors at the National Scholastic Adidas Outdoor Nationals meet in June of 2004. The Eureka squad also featuring Jessi Battistini, ran 11:33, breaking the meet record, but settling for a runner-up finish by less than a half-second. The four also ran to a runner-up finish in the 4×800, finishing in 9:00, less than three seconds behind first. In April of 2005, Snow made the trip to California to become one of, if not the first Missourian to compete at the Arcadia Invitational. The lean and light-footed junior Snow, ran to a third place finish in the Invitational 3200 meters in 10:34.80, seven seconds behind the winner.

As a senior, the many time state champ and Missouri State Cross Country Meet record holder, ran to a runner-up finish in the Arcadia Invitational 3200m. Snow blasted a 10:19.71, taking second to freshman phenom Jordan Hasay, who finished in 10:07. The performance put Snow atop the Missouri All-Time List. In June of 2006, Snow ran a 10:15 full two-mile at the Nike Outdoor National meet, a time that converts to a 10:12 3200m.

Also in 2006, Lee’s Summit North senior Jacob Boone, already one of the best distance runners in Missouri for several years by then, made the trip to Arcadia.  Boone ran a 9:07.43 to place 11th in the Invitational 3200 meters, an impressive performance for the Bronco’s star pupil of Coach Kris Solsberg. Boone went on to win the Missouri Class 4 1600 and 3200 as Lee’s Summit North placed 3rd in a great team battle that had SLUH winning with 75 points, Raytown South taking second with 73.5 points, and North totaling 72.5 points.

In 2011 a pair of Ladue middle/long sprint stars shined at Arcadia. Samantha Levin took her 2:09.27 best to California where she placed third in the Invitational 800 in 2:09.48. Fellow Rams star Montenae Roye entered Arcadia with a 54.35, the third best seed, and placed fourth in 56.48, in a somewhat slow race. The pair had helped Ladue Horton Watkins High to a Class 4 State title in 2009, and a second place finish in 2010. The duo followed the Arcadia performances with record-breaking results at the 2011 State Meet.

Levin decided her individual record chance was on day one of the 2011 State Meet. Sporting shades, Levin  blistered the track, leaving no question who would win, just if she could set the meet record. Levin won by more than five seconds, finishing in 2:08.55 for the record. The pair skipped the 4×800 as the Rams still finished seventh. After finishing the 400 meter prelims second and the 200 prelims 7th, Montenae Roye followed Levin’s act in the 400 finals Saturday. Roye clocked a 53.84 for the Class 4 record. Roye followed with an eighth place finish in the 200 meters. The duo closed the meet with by teaming with Shayla Arnold and Emily Warner in the 4×400 finals. The squad blew the field away, clocking a 3:48.00, to break the Class 4 record by nearly 3.5 seconds, and beating second place by 5.5 seconds.

A year after the Ladue duo became the first speedsters to make the trip to Arcadia, Drew White became the latest Missourian to run the Invitational 3200. As mentioned before, White ran to personal best of 9:04, taking 23rd in the field of 31. White went on to win the Kansas Relays Jim Ryun Mile and the Missouri Class 3 3200 and place in the 1600 and 4×800 as the Tigers just missed a trophy with their 5th place team finish.

A year ago, Kauppila wasn’t the only St. Louis area standout to make the trip West. MICDS senior Amos Bartelsmeyer ran in the Invitational Mile race. The race produced fast, but not super-fast times as Bartlesmeyer was fourth in 4:13.43, with the winner finishing in 4:12.06. Bartelsmeyer looked like he might be on his way to a sub-4:10 senior year performance and a possible team trophy, but at the sectional meet, pulled off after being notified he had been disqualified in the 3200. None the less he would have entered the Class 3 State Meet favored to rack up nearly 30 points. However an injury, a reported stress-fracture ended his high school career and quest for a fast, 4:0x 1600/mile personal best.

 

 

 

http://www.arcadiainvitational.org/

 

Missouri Results at Arcadia Invitational through the years

2013

Men 3200 Meter Run Invitational-28 entered

1st BenSaarel              12 Park City (Ut)         8:45.74

12th Noah Kauppila    11 Marquette (Mo)         8:54.45

Men 1 Mile Run Invitational-12 runners

1st Ryan Silva                         12 Rincon Univ (Az)       4:12.06

4th Amos Bartelsmeyer        12 MICDS (Mo)                4:13.43

http://www.arcadiainvitational.org/eprofile.php?event_id=63&title_id=87&do=title&folder_id=1033

2012

Men 3200 Meter Run Invitational

1 Futsum Zienasellassie     12 Ind. N Cen (In)        8:47.75

23 Drew White                12 Festus (Mo)            9:04.08

http://www.arcadiainvitational.org/eprofile.php?event_id=63&title_id=87&do=title&folder_id=946

2011

Women 400 Meter Dash Invitational                          Seed      Finals

1 Gabrielle Scott           12 Woodbridge -SS              55.40      55.01

2 Raena Rhone              12 Whitney Yng (IL)             54.05      55.70

3 Vanessa Jones            12 Etiwanda -SS                   53.58      55.91

  4 Montenae Roye         12 Ladue Horton(MO)       54.35      56.48 

5 Iesha Hardiman          11 Wilcox -CC                       55.07      56.90

6 Jazmin Harper             12 Oakmont -SJ                   55.35      57.56

Women 800 Meter Run Invitational                Seed          Finals

1 Savannah Camacho   Templeton                  2:08.44     2:08.30

2 Dynasty Gammage 12 Poly (LB) – SS            2:10.80     2:08.72

3 Samantha Levin      12 Ladue Horton(MO)  2:09.27    2:09.48

4 Shea Martinez        10 Davis (UT)                  2:14.39    2:10.20

5 Katherine Delaney 12 JSerra -SS                  2:14.90     2:11.50

6 Arielle Stevenson   12 Poly (LB) – SS            2:10.27     2:12.64

7 Katie Penney           12 Xavier Col (AZ)         2:14.73     2:14.08

8 Ashley Kealamakia 12 LIberty (AZ)              2:13.78     2:14.94

9 Hannah McInturff  10 Century (ID)              2:14.00     2:16.20

http://www.arcadiainvitational.org/eprofile.php?event_id=63&title_id=87&do=title&folder_id=851

2006

Men 3200 Meter Run Invitational 19 runners

1 Acosta, AJ                12 El Camino                      8:51.30

11 Boone, Jacob        12 Lee’s Summit North     9:07.43

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=63&title_id=87&do=title&folder_id=489

Women 3200 Meter Run Invitational

1 Jordan Hasay         9 Mission Coll     10:07.56

2  Merideth Snow  12 Eureka High     10:19.71 

3  Keara Sammons 12 Smoky Hill H    10:20.39

4 Kari Hardt             12 Queen Creek   10:32.22

5 Shelby Buckley    10 Corona Del M  10:34.82

18 total

http://www.arcadiainvitational.org/eprofile.php?event_id=63&title_id=87&do=title&folder_id=489

2005

Women 2 Mile Run Invitational

1 Kelly Parrish                   Vanguard HS          10:27.65

2 Nicole Schappert     12 Pope John Paul      10:30.84

3 Meridith Snow         11 Eureka High Scho  10:34.80

4 Whitney Anderson  12 Summit High Scho 10:35.91

5 Keara Sammons       11 Smokey Hill CO      10:36.13

6 Lauren Saylor           10 Buchanan HS          10:38.32

7 Whitney Blue           12 Newport Harbor    10:39.35

8 Samantha Gaffney  11 Judge Memorial     10:39.79

23 total

http://www.arcadiainvitational.org/eprofile.php?event_id=63&title_id=87&do=title&folder_id=488