By Leonard COUTIN
The first Pacific League cross-country meet was hosted by Arcadia on Tuesday at Arcadia County Park. Coming into the meet the Falcons were listed fifth on the CIF Rankings Chart of Sept. 18 and Arcadia ninth (prepared by Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack.com).
Highlights of the day included CV senior Colin FitzGerald completing his final lap by outdistancing the pack to take the win (14: 45.3). He congratulated teammate Zach Johnson (14:51.5), who scored a valuable second place, at the finish line. Apache Jack Ruan nosed in for third (15:02.2) just ahead of Falcon Spencer Geck (15:02.2). Burroughs’ lead runner Jagdeep Chahal placed fifth (15:04.8) follow by CV’s Manan Vats (15:04.8). Soichiro Nagao placed seventh (15:06.2) and Falcon Artin Allahverdian placed eighth, further aiding the victory for the Falcons’ win. Carter Walch placed 12th (15:24.8). With the win, the Falcons scored their first big upset against the Apache titans.
“The boys ran very well as a team,” said CV coach Mark Evans. “We had the first four in the front group through the first mile. The group went out very controlled and [maintained] control of the race. There were still four guys right there at two miles. They came through about 10:00-10:05 for two miles.
“Colin moved from there running his last mile in 4:45. Zach was about 4:51 for the last mile. The others were right about 5:00 for the last mile. We put four runners in front of Arcadia’s second runner and our fifth guy was just .2 behind their third. Our sixth guy was just four to five seconds behind Arcadia’s fifth runner. It was a great pack … with just a 21 second gap from first to fifth runner. They all did a great job staying together through two miles.”
Final team scores: CV 21, Arcadia 40, Burroughs 85, Burbank 94, Glendale 141, Pasadena 174, and Hoover 206
The Falcon girls had their hands full as they raced the veteran Apache team that was rated sixth by Gonzalez.
“The girls ran very well … lots of improvement,” said Evans. “Caitlyn [Couch] and Naila [Ortiz] did a great job staying in the front group through about 1.5 miles. Naila fell of a little and then Caitlyn fell off the pace about 2.25-2.5 into the race. They both did a great job. The rest of our team ran very well.
“Last year, Sammi Moore ran 21:22 on the course and 18:48 today. Izzy [Lieberman] was 21:49 last year and 19:30 today. We were only nine points behind Arcadia. That is a real accomplishment. We will only improve this season.”
Burroughs’ top runner Emily Virtue returned to win with a time of 17:20.5, followed by Apache Jasmine He (17.25.7) and Joyce Wu (17:27.9).
Couch took the lead for CV to capture fourth (17:34.0) followed by Ortiz (17:57.9).
Arcadia’s Eryca Yamane placed sixth (18:20.0) and Burbank first runner was Sol Fernandez who took seventh (18:28.6) with teammate Noemi Apreza following in eighttj (18:36.5). Falcon Sophia Atin placed ninth (18:37.6) while CV teammates Samantha Moore took 10th (18:48.8) and Gabby Borraez took 16th (19:28.3) to provide the points necessary for an overall second place.
Final team scores: Arcadia 35, CV 44, Burbank 62, Burroughs 84, Glendale 154, Hoover 182, and Pasadena 184.
The Falcons also celebrated a dual win with the JV boys’ and girls’ teams. Logan Neil captured the win running a time of 15:58.8 followed by teammates Charles Pingry (16:00.6) and Grant Lauterback (16:10.6). CV’s Ethan Sharp scored fifth (16:21.4) and Jack Doloszyski, the Falcons fifth man, took 10th (17:05.1) to complete a low score of 20.
Final JV boys team score: CV 20, Arcadia 36, Pasadena 87, and Glendale 114
The CV JV girls were led by Jasmine Chin who had to battle the Burbank Bulldogs and two strong runners from Arcadia as she grabbed fourth place running 21.01.4, followed by teammates Sojeong Kang (21.18.5) and Rachel Hart (21:31.5). Cara Fong made a significant improvement running 10th (22:40.2) and teammate Lilith Flores, CV’s fifth place runner, finished 12th (23:08.4) that helped complete the final winning score of 37 to beat out Burbank 41.
Final JV girls team score: CV 37, Burbank 41, Arcadia 45, and Pasadena 99
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