By Leonard COUTIN

The Falcons’ cross-country team gets to stay close to their home when they host the next three meets at CV Park. Crescenta Valley High School Head Coach Mark Evans scheduled a non-scoring invitational last week that included his Falcon runners and athletes from four other high schools. Participants included two traditionally strong performing schools from Santa Clarita –Canyon and Golden Valley High School – as well as local talent from St. Francis High and the Los Angeles runners from Santee High School. Running the course before the Oct. 1 Staub/Barnes Invitational will no doubt benefit the runners as they familiarize themselves with the rugged course.

Although the meet proved to be exciting, Evans made an important strategic play by holding his varsity boys out of the competition. After seeing them race hard at the Cool Breeze Invitational, Evans hoped to improve their conditioning as well give them some needed rest before the first big league meet on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 3:30 p.m. at CV Park.

Many of the Falcon JV performances proved to show greater depth for the team. Senior Matt Brunner, who has been nursing a leg injury, took the first position for the Falcons running sixth place with a time of 17:14.75. Golden Valley senior Jaime Calderon won with a time of 16:35.38, followed by three Canyon athletes: junior Patrick King took second (16:41.47), sophomore Andrew Mawhorter (16:42.63) placed third and sophomore Ethan Danforth took fourth (16:47.66). Golden Valley senior Jacob Acosta placed fifth (17:10.12). Falcons Carter Walch claimed eighth running 17:29.53 with Ethan Sharp placed 10th (17:39.84).

Final team score: Canyon 28, Golden Valley 44, CV 52, Santee 117, St. Francis 142

The Falcon girls performed well at the invitational. Junior Nalia Ortiz set a strong first mile time and captured fourth with one of her best performances running a time of 20:22.28. Santee’s Patricia Sanchez won the race with a time of 19:24.62 ahead of Canyon’s lead runner, senior Yee-lynn Wong, who captured second (19:34.06) followed by Golden Valley lead junior Aylin Gonzalez (19:45.09). Santee senior Jennifer Perez took second place for her team and fifth overall with a time of 20:23.72. Golden Valley’s Madisyn Rodriquez placed sixth (20:42.31). CV sophomore Melissa Owens placed in the top eighth position (21:24.12) and scored second for the team.

Other Falcon points came from sophomore Gabby Borraez who scored 10th running a time of 21:55.03.

Final team score: Canyon 44, CV 51, Golden Valley 54 and Santee 73

  Leonard Coutin