By Leonard COUTIN

At Burbank’s newest stadium, Memorial Field, Burroughs’ welcomed the Crescenta Valley Falcons and the Pasadena Bulldogs at the Pacific League track and field tri-meet on April 6. The Burroughs’ Indians have already earned a reputation as a strong distance team after winning the boys’ Pacific League cross-country title last season.

CV Head Coach Mark Evans also noted that Burroughs beat the Arcadia boys early in the season – a significant victory.

Burroughs’ Head Coach John Peebles has been successful in developing strong boys’ and girls’ cross-country squads that have advanced locally and in state competitions. Burroughs’ star runner sophomore Emily Virtue, who placed second at CIF finals, sixth at CIF state finals and eighth at Foot Locker West Regionals as well as having ran in the national finals, continued to help cultivate other rising stars in their program.

As the Falcons prepared for the dual meet against the Indians, they knew they would face strong adversarial running squads – both from the boys and girls.

After winning the first race of the day, the Falcon boys and girls 4×100 relay teams were off to a good start. The boys ran a time of 45.3 and the girls were clocked at 50.5 anchored by Jessy Shelton. Shelton also ran successfully in the girls 100m with a time of 12.75 to take the win. Fellow Falcon Grace McAuley did her part by winning the 1600m (5:23) followed by Burroughs, which took second and third places.

The Indian boys swept the 1600m and also took first (15.5) and third (16.8) in the boys 110HH against CV’s Kenny Kang. Kang placed second (16.0) and earned a gold in the 300HH running 40.50.

Elizabeth Filipian was the only Falcon to win two golds, one in the100H (15.88) and the other in the 300IH (49.50) with teammates Jennifer Saengsri taking second (50.1) and Jestena Galvan grabbing third (50.3). This helped to add significant points to the team’s total.

Falcon high jumpers took home gold as well. John Lapides had a victorious jump with 5-10, and teammate Claire Codding won jumping 4-10. CV senior Arthur Akopyan won the shot put (46-2) and teammate Roy Chun took third (37-7). Falcon senior Alisa Shinn won girls shot put with a throw of 36.9.5 and took second in the discus (101-10) behind Indian Nadine Younan (103-1).) Josh Kong placed second in the long jump (19.9.5) followed by J Lee (19-9).

Kyle Dickinson performed well in the 3200m taking the lead early in the race and running a smooth 9:50. Colin FitzGerald ran the 800m instead of his usual 1600m or 3200m race. Heading the pack for the first 600m, Indian Jacob Calderon poured on the speed to overtake FitzGerald to win in a time of 2:01 while FitzGerald took second 2:04.

Coach Evans recapped the results for the boys.

“Burroughs won 11 events and we won five. We scored three points in the sprints, nine in the two hurdle events, 23 points in the six field events with a sweep in the shot and nine points in the three distance races. Most of the field event points came in the throws.”

The Falcon girls came up short on the final tally of points. The Falcon girls won seven events while Burroughs won a total of nine.

Unfortunately Pasadena was not able to bring a full running squad to the meet and did not score many final points against the Falcons.

Final boys varsity score: Burroughs 86 vs. CV 50.

Final girls varsity score: Burroughs 75 vs. CV 61.

The Falcons will be running this weekend at Cerritos College starting Friday night and continuing into Saturday at the Mt. SAC relays. Mt. SAC is closed while the track is being refurbished for the next two seasons.

On Friday Colin FitzGerald is competing in the 1600m staring around 6:50 p.m. The girls’ shuttle hurdles race begins at 10:15 on Saturday morning in the Invitational section. The boys’ 4×1600 compete at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday in the seeded section of the 4×1600.

  Leonard Coutin