By Leonard COUTIN

The Falcons boys came out on top when they hosted the second Pacific League conference meet on their home course at CV Park last Thursday, Oct. 12. Now established as key contenders for the League championship with a 2-0 conference win, the Falcons scored one of the lowest team scores of the year – 19 points – compared to the last League meet where they won with a score of 21.

Leading the way was Colin FitzGerald, who not only ran one of the best times on CV’s home course (15:10.3) but also set a school course record as well. Teammates Zach Johnson and Manan Vats continued to provide the necessary points to help clinch the Falcon victory. Johnson ran 15:30.5 to place second and Manan Vats took fourth with a time of 15:40.1. Burroughs lead runner Jagdeep Chahal placed third (15:40.1). CV’s Spenser Geck continued to shine and grabbed a strong fifth place (15:44.1) followed by Burroughs’ Alexander Hirsch (15:48.9). Falcon Artin Allahverdian secured the final Falcon score to place seventh (15:51.5). Arcadia scored the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th spots.

Working diligently on shaping his team, Coach Evans developed many key strategies that focus on instilling confidence and motivation in his athletes. Before and during each race, senior FitzGerald can be counted on to provide a strong leadership influence resulting in a strong team. For the last three years, spectators have witnessed the passion and force of FitzGerald, who has already achieved many incredible running career marks.
“At Clovis, we did not get out well at the start of the race. And on Thursday we were just trying to get out fast together as a group. We are really working on getting out our fourth and fifth runners with Zach and Manan. They were able to do that on Thursday and stayed close the entire race. Colin had the okay to push when he was ready. We will work on this during our next few meets leading into CIF prelims and finals,” said Coach Mark Evans. “We need to be able to do this in a large race with a lot of teams. In the league meet we maintained a 40 second gap from first to fifth. That was a big improvement over our gap at Clovis. Our goal is to close this gap even more. By working on our start, it set us up for a fast race.

“Colin got a school record on the CV Park course of 15:10. The previous mark of 15:18 was by Nathan Sellers in 2005. As a team, we set a school team record on the course of 78:00. This is faster than our previous record of 80:04 in 2013.”

Final team scores: CV 19, Arcadia 53, Burroughs 61, Burbank 98, Glendale 150, Pasadena 182 and Hoover 207

Leading the girls’ varsity was Burroughs lead runner senior Emily Virtue who, once again, took first with a time of 18:17.1 followed by Arcadia’s Jasmine He, who placed second running 18:29.7. The Apaches girls have been rated as ninth in the CIF rating chart. CV’s Caitlyn Couch and Naila Ortiz continued to run well with the pack, capturing third (18:45.6) and fourth (19:07.5) positions. Falcon McKenna Heeg, who runs the 400m during track season, ran one of her lifetime best marks in the three-mile and scored an important ninth place (19:54.4). Samantha Moore also helped to break up the Burroughs’ score by capturing 15th (20:13.6) and teammate Gaby Borraez took 19th (20:27.5) to help the Falcons score second place as a team.

“This was one of our better races for the girls. Our goal was to get out with the Arcadia girls. We did a good job of this,” said Evans. “Caitlyn and Naila were able to finish in front of the No. 2 girl of Arcadia. McKenna Heeg had a great race on the course breaking 20:00 for the first time. We are getting better with each race.”

Final team scores: Arcadia 31, CV 50, Burroughs 69, Burbank 70, Glendale 141 and Hoover 162

The Falcons will attend the Mt. SAC Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 21. Individual sweepstake races will be at 8:50 a.m. for boys and 9:10 a.m. for girls. Team sweepstakes is at 9:35 a.m. for boys and 9:55 a.m. for girls.

  LANCASTER, Leonard Coutin