By Leonard COUTIN

As a little ray of sunshine fell upon the Crescenta Valley area, the CVHS Falcons faced one of their strongest competitive rivals, Burroughs High School, as well as Muir in a tri meet held last Thursday. The scoring of the meet was based on each individual school scoring against Crescenta Valley as in a dual meet. In the final outcome, the Falcons proved victorious over the Burroughs’ Indians. But it took more than first place positions to capture all the gold. After tabulating the points from each race, the Falcons ended up splitting the wins of the day in the boys’ races proving the importance of gaining points in placing second and third. The Falcon girls also scored well against their competition, winning nine events to Burroughs’ seven. It was unfortunate that Muir could not fill most of the varsity events, especially since they were once considered the “powerhouse” of the League.

Against Muir, the Falcon boys won 12 of the 16 events and the girls won 14 of the 16 events.

With only three weeks into the season the Falcons are showing great promise and strength on the field. Head Coach Mark Evans was pleased with many of his athlete’s performances.

“Jaedin Springfield had a great race in the 100m with Nick Tralongo right there with him for second,” he said. “That’s [Tralongo’s] fastest time. Nick ran his fastest 200m of the season and had a great leg on the 4×400 relay.

“For the girls we had big wins from McKenna Heeg in the 400m, Jestena Galvan in the 100 hurdles, Izzy Lieberman in the 200m, Kristina Carrillo in the 300m, Kristina Kruegermann in the long jump, Claire Codding in the high jump and triple jump and Allison Smith in the shot put.”

CV’s top runner Colin FitzGerald, who continues to show his stamina and strength in many of his races, came from behind in both competitions, winning the 1600m in 4:28.75 and the 800m in 2:02 as well as running a leg in the 4×400 relay in his fastest leg time of 53. 5. Teammate Dylan Wilbur, a sophomore, ran his best race of the season (2:03.06) beating out Alexander Hirsch of Burroughs in the 800m.

Falcon sprinters Springfield and Tralongo, who continually compete against each other, have been consistently putting points on the charts for their team. Springfield won the 100m running his fastest time of 11.28, with Tralongo taking second (11.31). Tralongo later came back and won the 200m in a time of 22.93. Teammate Springfield captured third running 23.44 behind Burroughs’s Duran.

Anthony Zaragoza took third place in the 110H running 17.25 as well as the 300H in 44.94 behind Burroughs, whose team captured both first and second places in both events. CV’s Roy Choe and teammate Hratch Abrahamian both cleared 5’8″ in the high jump, taking first and second places. Choe won with fewer misses at the same height. CV’s Leo Ohandjanian won the shot put with a throw of 39-3 followed by teammate Hovanes Kalijian throwing 36-7. Luke Kang led the CV sweep in the Long Jump with a 19-8 jump followed by Andrew Granier (17-9.25) and Hollings (17-5.5) jump adding valuable points to the score.

Final boys’ score: CV 71, Burroughs 65; CV 108, Muir 26

The Falcon girls knew they needed to be tough to beat the Indians, especially if Burroughs ran their star Emily Virtue in both the middle and distance races. As expected, Virtue immediately took off ahead of the pack and finished with a time of 5:11. Falcons Melissa Owen captured second running 5:49.3 and teammate Sophia Atin placed third (5:51.42). Virtue returned to win the 800m in a time of 2:22.22. The Falcons took the top three spots in the 110H and the 300H. Galvan captured the win running a time of 15.9, followed by Kristina Carrillo (16.67) and Jennifer Saengsri (17.28). Carrillo, who has been contributing greatly to the overall team score, won the 300H in a time of 48.74, followed by teammates Saengsri and Amy Giboney.

The Falcon sprints team missed the appearance of both Jessy Shelton and Clair Schleuter, who had to sit out nursing injuries. Picking up the slack for CV was young sophomore Isabella Lieberman who won both the 100m and 200m, clocking 13.1 and 27.28. Teammate Brianna Domingo placed second in the 100m (13.24). Clair Codding had two valuable gold wins in both the high jump clearing 4-10 and she led the sweep in triple jump with a 31-1 jump, followed by Joyce Kang jumping 30-6 and Sarina Bedikian with 29-6. Kristina Kruegermann won the long jump with a 15’-1.5 jump and Alison Smith won the shot put with a throw of 27-11. Emily Perkins took an important second place in the pole vault clearing 8-6.

Final girls’ score: CV 85, Burroughs 47; CV 116, Muir 10

  Leonard Coutin