By Mark SHELTON

The Crescenta Valley Girls Varsity cross country team came out on top during Thursday’s Pacific League finals held at Griffith Park. Somewhat nervous going into the race without their usual number one runner Claudia Pham who was not running due to a foot injury the rest of the varsity team showed they were exactly that: a team and went on to best Arcadia, Burbank, John Burroughs, Hoover and Glendale high schools.  Brooke Moultrie took the first finish for the Falcons, coming in second only to regular race winner Catrina McAllister of Arcadia. All told, it was enough to garner 40 points and beat second place team Arcadia which finished with 42 points.

“Eliza (Collison) had her best personal race of the season,” reported head coach Mark Evans. “We pulled off a win against Arcadia and feel pretty good going into next week’s CIF preliminary finals ranked eighth in the division. Claudia (Pham) should be well enough to run and we should qualify for the finals.”

In the boys varsity race Arcadia returned the favor by beating the Falcons younger squad that was running several freshmen in the race against their seasoned junior and senior runners. Mike Duncan turned in another good performance, coming in first for the Falcons in ninth place overall. Arcadia’s squad, led by first place finisher Ammar Moussa, finished with 22 points.

“Corey Williams was out sick but the other boys really stepped up to help,” said Evans. “We had a young team on a tough course but we have shown a lot of improvement this year which will only carry over to building a stronger team next year.  We should finish in about the middle of the pack at the CIF finals.”