Riley places 30th at Arcadia Invitational

By Joe Naiman

Ramona High School senior Forrest Riley ran the boys 3,200-meter race at the Arcadia Invitational track and field meet April 6 and finished 30th among the 56 runners in the seeded division, including 13th among the 22 runners in his race.

“He did not do as well as we had hoped, but he was still only three seconds away from his personal best,” said Steve Albanese, who is Ramona’s assistant coach for distance runners.

Riley’s time of 9:20.96 was achieved despite a miscalculation in the number of laps he had run.

“He just counted wrong,” Albanese said. “He thought he had one more lap and really he had two.”

Riley competed in the March 23 Mt. Carmel Invitational and had a time of 9:17.31. He had hoped to beat that time at the Arcadia Invitational and was meeting that goal after six laps.

“He was on pace for about a 9:12,” Albanese said. “The last two laps did not go well for him.”

Riley had a time of 9:46.51 in the 2011 Arcadia Invitational.

“It’s a really prestigious meet,” Albanese said.