Some may forget that the first CIF Southern Section team title ever won by Burroughs High was the boys’ cross country team winning Division 1 in 2014.
Winning another title in Division 1 would be a huge task. But coach John Peebles is building a nice boys’ team that is still a year or two away from hitting its peak.
Providence High is looking very strong with its girls’ team and Burbank High is looking to start over with a mostly young group.
Burroughs
The Bears boys’ team began the season with the Great Cow Run in Norwalk and finished fifth amongst 24 teams. Burroughs does not have any seniors in its top five.
Junior Alex Acevedo was the top finisher for the first meet of the season. Burroughs has two stellar sophomores in Liam Ellingsworth and Nathan Marca, both of which have shown great improvement over the summer. Ellingsworth was the Pacific League frosh-soph champion a year ago and Marca is the son of former Burbank great and Bulldog coach Trevor Marca. Juniors Danny Camacho, Justin Cano and Christopher Miguel give Burroughs a solid pack. Senior Nick Delgado and juniors Dylan Chua, Sherman Jones and Rogelio Raya will also be in the mix.
The girls’ team is led by junior Isabella Galustians, who was a CIF finalist as an individual last year. She had a very strong track season in the spring and should be in the running for the Pacific League title.
Sophomore Amy Harkins has looked solid in the early going. Juniors Kayla Cabral, Anya Kallianpur, Stella Solis, Makayla Victoria, sophomores Valorie Shaby and Lucy Thompson as well as freshmen Sutton Tappon-Mahoney and Emmanuelle Laurente.
Providence
The Pioneers girls’ team qualified for the state meet for the first time in school history a year ago and opens the season ranked No. 4 in the CIF Southern Section Division 5 poll.
Juniors Aubrey Eaton and Natalie Gonzalez give the team a fine 1-2 punch. Junior Reese Eaton is also back. Seniors Erika Agazaryan and Eva Barahona are also returners from the team that went to the state meet. Maggie Clark and Nayirie Aladadi also figure to contribute.
The boys’ team has qualified for the state meet the last two seasons. That will be hard to do even though the Pioneers have a solid top thee. Junior Henry Virtue is a sub-4:30 runner in the 1,600 and also went under 2 minutes in the 800 meters last spring.
Senior Dillon Yell and junior Aedan Granish were both under 5 minutes in the 1,600 in the spring and should give Providence two more solid veterans.
Sophomore Nathan Mendez and freshmen Brandon Edelstein, Luca Rios and Alex Salgado will fill the other spots.
Burbank
Ricardo Mujica is finally a senior and has already had a fine career. He was one of the Pacific League’s best a year ago and should continue in that role, having 4 minutes, 23.15 seconds in the 1,600 meters in track.
“I have high hopes for him this season,” first-year coach Sarah Czuprynski said.
Seniors Sanjay Dhamodharan and Maxime Slek are both return sub 5-minute runners in the 1,600.
Sophomores Brandon Kim and Artem Petrosian also went under 5 minutes in the 1,600 as freshmen. Senior William Klein is another experience veteran.
The girls’ team is very young, but features two veterans in senior Ashley Sosa and junior Leah Yaghoobov. Amelie Guyot, who was the Pacific League varsity champion as a freshman and finished second as a sophomore, has returned to her native France.
