The Beach Cities Invitational track and field...

The Beach Cities Invitational track and field meet, one of the oldest in Orange County, has been canceled, said Eric Tweit, athletic director at host Newport Harbor. It was to have been held Saturday.

Tweit said only “five or six” schools accepted invitations to the meet, which dates to the mid-1960s.

“That’s just not enough, so we’ve postponed it for this year,” he said.

There are two possible reasons for a lack of interest, according to Tweit.

First, more and more schools have all-weather tracks, which makes meets held there more attractive than those on Newport Harbor’s dirt track.

Second, Beach Cities is an all-boys’ meet, which cuts interest in half automatically.

The meet might make a comeback next year, however.

“We’re looking at setting it up a different way,” Tweit said. “Maybe having it just a frosh-soph meet, or co-ed or just field events.”