Locals competing at Arcadia Invitational have strong supporting cast

At midseason, the Arcadia Invitational comes about as close as a regular-season track and field meet can come to projecting the field of the CIF State track and field championships.

The standards are set high for this nationally-recognized invitational at Arcadia High. The area will send six competitors into the Saturday night invitational flight.

A few of the locals competing in the evening will be first-time competitors, although the places they come from are anything but a surprise.

Corona del Mar High senior Morgan Simon heads to Arcadia tied for fourth in the state in the girls’ pole vault at 12 feet, 7 inches. She has been taught by Fritz Howser, who recently coached former state qualifiers Ryan Fegan (Newport Harbor) and Alex Escalera (Sage Hill).

Marina junior Skyler Magula vaulted to eighth in the state following his new lifetime best of 15-3, which he accomplished at the Trabuco Hills Invitational last weekend. Magula’s brother, Michael, reached the state meet last year, where he was offered and accepted an opportunity to jump at Long Beach State.

Kevin Magula is their father. He started the Higher Flyers Pole Vault Club in 1999.

Newport Harbor throwers Spencer Blake and Aidan Elbettar also qualified for their first Saturday night session at Arcadia. They have benefited from the sage advice of Tony Ciarelli, the longtime throws coach who has headed the Sailors for a total of 21 years over two separate stints.

Blake has a personal record of 167-1 in the discus, which he posted in the Beach Cities Invitational. The minimum standard to get into Arcadia was 148 feet.

Elbettar has topped out at 54-0½ in varsity shotput competitions. The sophomore threw 58-5 in the frosh-soph flight of the Trabuco Hills Invitational, but that mark was posted with a 10-pound ball. A 12-pound ball is used at the varsity level.

Costa Mesa’s Felicia Crenshaw, a 2017 state medalist in the discus, leads the area’s returners to the Arcadia night meet.

Huntington Beach high jumper Jack Wiseman is the other invitational flight returnee. The junior currently sits just outside the top 10 in the state with a season-best 6-6 mark.

Edison’s Aiden Garnett has joined Wiseman at 6-6, clearing the new bar in each of his last two starts.

Locals in the Arcadia Invitational Saturday night session

Girls’ discus throw, 3:45 p.m.: Felicia Crenshaw, Costa Mesa, Sr.

Girls’ pole vault, 4:45 p.m.: Morgan Simon, Corona del Mar, Sr.

Boys’ pole vault, 4:45 p.m.: Skyler Magula, Marina, Jr.

Boys’ shotput, 4:45 p.m.: Aidan Elbettar, Newport Harbor, So.

Boys’ high jump, 5:15 p.m.: Jack Wiseman, Huntington Beach, Jr.

Boys’ discus throw, 6:15 p.m.: Spencer Blake, Newport Harbor, Sr.

Trabuco Hills Invitational recap

The Trabuco Hills Invitational served as the final tune-up to Arcadia. As the local entries show, most of the area’s elite athletes reside in the field.

While lacking the pure foot speed of the top sprinters, local runners demonstrated tremendous grit in the fall during cross-country.

The two all-state cross-country runners — Newport Harbor’s Alexis Garcia and Laguna Beach’s Ryan Smithers — put up good performances ahead of their Friday night appearances at Arcadia.

Garcia finished fourth in the invitational flight of both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. His times were 4 minutes 23.15 seconds and 9:22.32, respectively.

Smithers ran 4:23.71 to finish as the runner-up in the Friday night distance carnival at Trabuco Hills. Breakers teammate Zachary Falkowski took fourth in 4:25.53.

Costa Mesa’s Diane Molina placed fourth (5:17.99) in the girls’ 1,600 last Friday.

In the girls’ 3,200 invitational race, Sage Hill’s Brooklyn Button placed fourth in 11:31.67.

Molina is joined by Laguna Beach’s Evie Cant and Edison’s Avery Dorff in the girls’ 3,200 rated race at Arcadia on Friday night.

The locals in the boys’ 3,200 rated heat will be Garcia, Smithers, and Fountain Valley’s Esteban Prado.

Marina softball in Woodbridge semifinals

The softball teams of Marina, Edison and Fountain Valley all did well enough to reach the Gold Bracket of the Woodbridge Tournament last Saturday.

After Monday’s quarterfinal action, Marina was the lone Sunset League team to reach the tournament semifinals.

The Vikings (9-5) will take on top-seeded Hacienda Heights Los Altos (14-2) at 3 p.m. at Deanna Manning Stadium inside Irvine’s Bill Barber Park. The championship game is scheduled for 5:15 p.m.

Marina has gone 3-0 in the tournament with wins over Brea Olinda, Newhall Hart and El Dorado. Emily Rush has led the charge. She had a two-homer game against Brea Olinda, and she allowed one run while pitching against El Dorado.

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner