By Leonard COUTIN

For the second year, the Eagle Invitational was sponsored by El Segundo High School at the Lakes Golf Course. The course offered a variety of terrain: for the start, a large green off the golf course, a significant amount of up and down terrain, an off-road dirt trail through the electric power tower and a 200m grass downhill finish. Although the invitational is young, it drew large crowds for the early morning events. 

The Crescenta Valley Falcon cross-country team had a strong showing on Saturday. With some of the varsity team members choosing to sit out this competition, CV Head Coach Mark Evans was able to see how his younger runners performed.

In Race No. 11 – Boys Overall, the lead runner for the Falcons was Chris Cubias, who placed sixth, with a time of 15:27.5. Teammates following were Rowan FitzGerald, ninth, 15:35.8, Max Burton, 11th, 15:37, Bryce Bitetti, 16th, 15:45.3, Dylan Haworth, 34th, 16:10.7 and Christian Peraza, 48th, 16:25.2.

“We really ran better this week,” said Coach Evans. “Our gap between our first and fifth guys was 18 seconds, which is great. This is what we need these guys to do consistently. Everyone ran faster this week than last. Boys’ sophomores won their race.”

Final Boys Overall scores: El Toro 49, CV 55, Palisades Charter 114, Burroughs 147, Peninsula 158, Fillmore 192, and San Pedro 251

The Falcon girls had a strong start looking to Sophia Atin and Samantha Moore taking the lead. Unfortunately, though, Atin apparently returned to competition too early from an injury earlier this month and ended up leaving early. Falcon Juliana Cheney placed ninth in a time of 18:47.8 followed by Natalie Bitetti in 12th, 18:50.7. The other Falcon runners were Moore, 14th, 19:09.2, Ily Nelson, 25th, 19:30.2, Eden Haack, 48th, 20:20.9, Rebecca Doherty, 51st, 20:22.3 and Valeria Borraez, 56th, 20:28.5.

“[It was good] to see the girls get second place. Natalie Bitetti ran another great race as our second girl. Juliana Cheney really stepped up,” said Coach Evans.

Final Overall Girls score: El Toro 26, CV 108, Burroughs 125, South Torrance 148, Peninsula 195, Mater Dei 226, and North Torrance 241

  Bill LEUNG, Leonard Coutin