For years, Arlington has been somewhat unique in having high-school varsity athletes successfully participate in two sports during the same season.

One year, during the winter campaign, Yorktown High’s Ari Molina won a Liberty District wrestling championship in Arlington in the early evening.

An hour later and miles away at George Mason University, after a frantic car ride in which he changed uniforms and arrived with only seconds to spare, Molina finished second in a race at the state swimming championships — with virtually no warmup.

Molina later was featured in the Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd section for that achievement.

During the fall one year, an athlete for Washington-Liberty High School (then known as Washington-Lee) ran in the girls district cross-country championships during the late afternoon at Burke Lake Park in Fairfax County. By 7 p.m., she was back in Arlington playing for W-L in a district-tournament field-hockey championship match.

“I had several [players] do multiple sports,” said Beth Prange, who coached multiple sports for W-L, including field hockey, before recently retiring.

Yorktown graduate and football star Max Milien played for the school’s boys lacrosse team one spring while also running sprints and participating in jumps for the boys outdoor track-and-field squad during the same season.

Just this winter season on the same day and night, Emmett Engelhardt ran in a postseason midday indoor track-and-field team relay race for the Washington-Liberty team. Then in the evening, he played in a game and a key role for the W-L boys basketball team, scoring four points with a key steal.

The examples of that Arlington multi-sport tradition during all three seasons have gone on and on for years at all four high-schools.

Logistics have to be agreed upon and worked out between the athletes and coaches. In general, the concept has been encouraged by the schools’ different directors of student activities over the years.

This past fall, Bishop O’Connell High School’s Sadie Smith ran for the girls cross-country team in some races and also played a big part for the Knights’ state-championship girls soccer team.

A couple of years ago Natalie Anderson was a springtime girls lacrosse and track-and-field athlete for O’Connell.

“It takes a unique type of athlete to do that. They have to be extremely hardworking, focused and organized,” O’Connell cross-country and track-and-field coach Jim Connor said. “This tends to work if all agree about the situation.”

This winter, Wakefield High’s Madeleine Wearing was a championship gymnast for the girls team, and also participated in events for the girls indoor track-and-field squad.

This spring, Yorktown’s Kaiya Ovando will throw the shot put and discus for the girls outdoor track-and-field team, while starting for the girls Yorktown softball squad when it plays.

Yorktown’s Olivia Stafford will again be a standout girls lacrosse player, and may run in some track-and-field races.

“If it all can be worked out, why not? It’s a good thing,” Washington-Liberty cross-country and track-and-field coach John Bacon said.