Despite the on and off rain during the weekend, local athletes and teams fared very well (for the most part) at various events around the state.

In Southern California, the Gunn girls' distance medley relay came up with the most outstanding local performance at the annual Arcadia Invitational on Saturday. The team of sophomore Kieran Gallagher, senior Sunny Margerum, junior Emma Dohner and junior Erin Robinson finished fourth in the invitational race in 12:03.15.

That time not only broke the school record of 12:12.16 from 2002 (and anchored by school distance standout Ruth Graham), but it also moved the Titans to No. 4 in the nation as the top four teams finished ahead of the previous national-leading time.

Gallagher led off with a 3:39.2 for 1200 meters with Margerum following with a solid 58.4 for the 400. Dohner picked it up with a 2:21.3 for 800 meters and Robinson brought it home with a season best of 5:04.2 for the 1,600. First place was 11:54.75 by new national leader Redondo.

The fast relay time helped Margerum make up for two sub-par (for her) performances in earlier events. She was fourth in her heat (23rd overall) in the 100 hurdles with a 15.48 and was only 16th in the long jump at 16-0, just two days after leaping 18-0 in a dual meet.

Palo Alto senior Philip MacQuitty ran in the boys' invitational mile on Saturday evening, an event where he led the state coming in. MacQuitty managed just an eighth-place finish of 4:17.81 as Jantzen Oshier of Trubuco Hills won in 4:12.80. That converts to 4:11.33 for the 1,600 -- giving him the state lead over MacQuitty.

On Friday, MacQuitty helped the Palo Alto boys' 4x1 mile relay team capture the seeded division title. The all-senior team of Henry Jordan, MacQuitty, Josh Newby and Peter Wilson clocked a winning time of 18:10.38, which averages to 4:52.59 per leg. The invitational 4-mile relay was held after the seeded division, with Dana Hills winning in 17:27.63. Had Palo Alto run in that race, its time of 18:10.38 would be been 11th.

Also at Arcadia, Stanford-bound Kori Carter of Claremont, the nation's best hurdler, won the girls' 100 hurdles in 13.55 and added a victory in the 300 hurdles (42.52) over second-place Katie Nelms of Leland (43.29), who also is headed to Stanford in the fall.

Another Stanford recruit, Erik Olson of Novato, was 13th in the boys' 3,200 invitational in 8:59.01.

At the Quicksilver Invitational on Saturday at Leland High, Castilleja's Rachel Skokowski finished fifth in the girls' 800 in 2:24.99.

Baseball

With senior Joc Pederson getting three hits, driving in three and scoring four runs, Palo Alto rolled to a 12-3 nonleague decision over visiting Sobrato from Morgan Hill on Saturday.

The Vikings (16-3) showed off their talent in just about every aspect of the game, displaying their strength and depth of hitting, pitching, and defense. Paly allowed the visitors two runs in the top of the first, but answered with four in the bottom of the frame while extending its winning streak to 11 games.

The Vikings will have a few days off for spring break before hosting Leigh on Friday (3:30 p.m.) and then visiting Leland on Saturday (1 p.m.) in nonleague action. The Vikings then will return to SCVAL De Anza Division action the following week with a two-game series against Monta Vista. Palo Alto (10-0) and Los Gatos are both undefeated in league play.

In Las Vegas in another close, hard-fought battle, Menlo lost for the third straight game, this time giving up two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh to drop a 7-6 decision to Douglas of Minden Nevada in the final round of the 15th annual Bishop Gorman Easter Classic baseball tournament on Saturday.

Freddy Avis threw well for the Knights (9-5) in going the distance and hitting 88 MPH on the radar gun, but a one-out error, a walk and then a bloop single with two outs allowed the Tigers to win it in their last at-bat.

Offensively Menlo was led by catcher Jackson Badger, who drilled a two-run homer to put the Knights ahead in the sixth by a run. Menlo finished the tournament with a 1-3 record, losing by two runs in nine innings and then back-to-back one-run games.

Diving

Palo Alto and Gunn fared well at the Palo Alto Invitational on Saturday with the each team placing two divers among the top eight girls and a total of three boys among the top six.

In the girls' competition, Sophie Jorasch of Palo Alto finished second with 325 points as Allie Lombardi of Carmel won with 332.55 points. Palo Alto's Emma Miller was fifth (271.70), Gunn's Jenny Anderson was sixth (246.35) and Gunn's Louise McGregor was eighth with 228.85.

In the boys' diving, Palo Alto's Jordan Zenger was third (307.25), teammate Alex Francis was fourth (275.3) and Gunn's Miko Mallari was sixth (262.3). Grayson Huston of Carmel won the 11-dive event with 438.10 points.

Girls' lacrosse

Menlo School continued a successful weekend in Southern California with a 14-10 nonleague triumph over Bishop's School (La Jolla) in San Diego on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, the Knights (9-3) handled Santana, 17-10.

Against Bishop's, freshman center Michaela Michael led the scoring with seven points, five coming on goals. Close behind was senior tri-captain Maggie Brown with six goals while tri-captains Mila Sheeline (two) and Natalie Williford (one goal, one assist) contributed the other goals for Menlo (8-3). The Knights came out strong in the opening eight minutes of play game, taking a 4-0 lead with goals from Brown, Michael, Williford and one more from Brown. Bishop's adjusted and got to with 7-4 by halftime.

Menlo turned on the heat in the second half and led in the percentage of shots converted. The Knights never compromised their lead (average of a three-goal differential in the second half) as they consistently added to the score sheet in their favor. They also came up with a total of 14 of the draw controls and 16 of the contested gound balls.

In the afternoon match, Brown scored seven goals while Michael added six goals and four assists, with all the assists on goals by Brown.

The game started in a familiar way for the Menlo girls as Santana scored the first two goals in rapid succession -- putting Menlo on red-alert status. The Knights dug in, and began to play with determination, and went up 3-2 with 8:25 left before halftime on goals from Brown, Michael and Brown again. Menlo never trailed again, leading by 10-5 at halftime.

Menlo played three nonleague matches in San Diego, all against opponents that finished among the top 10 rankings in the San Diego Section (36 teams) last season. Bishop's School and and Santana both won their respective conferences (Coastal and Grossmont, respectively), and Cathedral Catholic finished second to Coronado (2009 San Diego Section champs) in the City Conference.

Menlo returns to West Bay Athletic League (Foothill Division) against visiting Castilleja on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The Knights will visit Burlingame on Thursday and compete in the annual Western States Tournament on Saturday at Treasure Island.