Santa Rosa’s Jake Arnold (Maria Carrillo, ’02), a two-time NCAA decathlon champion at the University of Arizona, will compete at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore., starting Sunday.

Arnold, 24, has a decent chance to qualify for the Summer Olympics in Beijing — the top three qualify and Arnold’s personal-best score (8,215 points) is the fourth-best in the field.

Regardless of Arnold’s performance, however, he figures to be on a big stage this summer. Last week, Arnold was in Carson to film a national commercial for Home Depot, which sponsors the Olympic Job Development Program that Arnold is a part of. As an Olympic hopeful, Arnold receives full-time pay for a flexible 20-hour work week at Home Depot.

The commercial, scheduled to run this summer, will feature different members of the job program. Arnold was filmed long jumping at the Home Depot Center for the commerical.

By the way, a pre-Trials feature on Arnold will run later this week in the Press Democrat. Here’s some meet information:

Live results: www.decathlon200.ee, www.flashresult.com

Decathlon schedule
Sunday
10 a.m. — 100 meters
10:50 a.m. — Long jump
Noon — Shot put
1:15 p.m. — High jump
3:35 p.m. — 400 meters

Monday
11:30 a.m. — 110-meter hurdles
12:20 p.m. — Discus
2:35 p.m. — Pole vault
4:45 p.m. — Javelin
8:35 p.m. — 1,500 meters