By Leonard COUTIN

On Thursday, Nov. 4 CVHS varsity girls pulled an upset in the Pacific League Cross Country finals held at Crescenta Valley Park.

Coach Mark Evans knew it was going to be a close meet, but no one would guess it would come down to one point.

“We prepared just as we do for every meet,” said Evans. “We emphasized being more aggressive at the start of the race. We wanted to make sure we had everyone up toward the front.”

With these instructions lead CV runner senior Claudia Pham battled Arcadia’s Catrina McAlister through the entire course.

Fellow senior McAlister had a winning time of 18:52.59 with Pham’s time (18:54.28) placing her second. Junior Alejandra Quintero of Arcadia took third with a time of 19:13.51.

Other notable placements by CV were Erika Johnson (19:20.72) who took fifth, Anneke Kakebeen (19:30.17) took sixth, Brooke Moultrie (20:01.02) placed eighth, Naomi Wilcox (20:11.50) placed ninth, Cali King (20:18.44) secured tenth followed by teammate Ali Johnson (20:29.24) placing eleventh and sophomore Hannah Ruby (20:41.94) placed thirteenth.

Running league meet score was Crescenta Valley 31, Arcadia 32, Burbank 71, Burroughs 119, Hoover 155, Glendale 171, and Pasadena 186.

The results of the boys varsity were not a surprise to anyone who has been keeping up with Arcadia. The Pacific League champion, Arcadia High School, is ranked as one of the national’s top teams this year. Lead runner Ammar Moussa (15:26.11) and teammate Sergio Gonzalez (15:26.32) took the first and second places respectively. Burroughs first place runner Anthony Monroe (15:32.05) took third place while Arcadia teammates took the fourth through eighth positions. Sergio Fraire (16:37.98) of Burbank took ninth, Charlie Camacho (16:42.60) of Burroughs placed tenth and CV’s Mike Duncan (16:44.55) took eleventh position. The meet running score for the boys varsity was Arcadia 18, Burroughs 59, Crescenta Valley 87, Burbank 91, Hoover 156, Glendale 166 and Pasadena 207.

League final standings, according to Coach Evans, were: Arcadia won all the boys divisions; Burroughs took second; CV tied for third in the boys varsity with Burbank. The boys JV standings were Arcadia first; Burroughs second; Burbank third and CV fourth.

In boys FS, Arcadia took first, Burbank second with Burroughs and CV tied for third.

The girls standing posted CV and Arcadia tied for the league championship in varsity. Burbank won the JV girls championship with CV second and Burbank and Arcadia tied for the league championship in girls FS with CV third.

The league finals are on Saturday, Nov.13 with CIF prelims hosted at Mt San Antonio College. The CV varsity boys are scheduled to run at 2:06 p.m. in race 24, Division 1, heat 3 and the CV girls will run 2:44 p.m. in race 27, Division 1, heat 1.C

  cross country, cvhs