Pacific League Cross Country Meet Has Mixed Results

Emily Virtue winning a Pacific League cross country meet Thursday is not new news.

Virtue has won every league race the last three seasons.

But the performance by her Burroughs High teammates at Crescenta Valley Park in beating Burbank High certainly was a surprise and noteworthy.

After losing by 22 points to the Bulldogs the first league meet, Burroughs stunned Burbank for third place in league, scoring 69 points to Burbank’s 70.

The other surprise came from the Burbank High boys’ team. The Bulldogs may have finished fourth, but put together some superb times for such a young team. Burroughs, with a veteran team did beat the Bulldogs head to head, 61 to 98. Like in golf, the lowest score wins in cross country.

Virtue won the girls’ race by covering the 3-mile course in a personal best 18 minutes, 17 seconds.

Also for Burroughs were Vanessa Reveles (13^th, 20:11), Jordan Guzman (16^th, 20:21), Catrina Villalpando (18^th, 20:26), Ceci Whitney (21^st, 20:36) and Lakely Nealis (25^th, 21:04).

“We did some really good pack running this time,” Reveles said. “I know in the last league meet we started way too slow and we should have picked it up faster.”

Burbank was led by Sol Fernandez (7^th, 19:32). She was followed by Noemi Apreza (11^th, 19:56), Shalom Mejia (12^th, 20:00), Jordan Delgado (17^th, 20:24), Lydia Forsyth (23^rd, 20:41), Jamie Levin (24^th, 20:42) and Raelene Aldana (26^th, 21:32).

“We did have a PRs (personal records) today with our team, so we’re proud of our individual achievements, but we’ll learn from this,” Fernandez said.

The boys’ varsity race was won by Crescenta Valley’s Colin Fitzgerald in 15:10. CV won the boys’ team race with 19 points. Burroughs was third with 61, followed by Burbank with 98.

Burroughs was led by Jagdeep Chahal (3^rd, 15:40). Also for the Indians were Alexander Hirsch (6^th, 15:48), Raymond Berrellez (12^th, 16:13), Jeron Straker (19^th, 16:38), Andrew Hoxsie 21^st, 16:42), Carlos Ponce (22^nd, 16:55) and Jimmy Nealis (23^rd, 16:55).

Burbank was led by freshman Andres Leon (13^th, 16:15). Victor Goli (14^th, 16:23), Dayne Ellis (18^th, 16:35), Anthony Chiaravalle (27^th, 17:20), Tadeh Shanazari (28^th, 17:24), Jahir Olvera (33^rd, 17:57) and Peter Al-Hasani (35^th, 18:24). All seven runners return next season for the Bulldogs and the top five are either freshmen or sophomores.