MT. SAN ANTONIO COLLEGE INVITATIONAL : Arce to Cross Country, Run For Notre Dame : Scholarship: Distance specialist from Palmdale gets free ride to compete for the Fighting Irish.

Antonio Arce of Palmdale High, 1994 State Division II cross-country champion, has accepted a scholarship from Notre Dame.

Arce, runner-up in the 3,200 meters in last year’s State track championships, took recruiting trips to Notre Dame, UCLA, Stanford, California and Cal State Sacramento.

“They have a good team, they have a good program and they have a good coach,” Arce said about Notre Dame. “And I like the school.”

Notre Dame, 14th in last year’s NCAA Division I cross-country championships, was not at the top of Arce’s list of schools earlier in the year, but when the Fighting Irish offered him an academic scholarship along with a partial athletic scholarship, he couldn’t turn it down.

“I won’t have to pay a cent to go there and that’s a big plus,” he said. “The California schools couldn’t offer me an (academic scholarship) and it’s really hard to get a full athletic scholarship any more.”

Arce finished third in the Foot Locker West cross-country regional and seventh in the national championships. He has bests of 4 minutes 15.61 seconds in the 1,600 and 9:03.19 in the 3,200.