Bellarmine-Jefferson cross-country picks up gold, silver
ARCADIA — Despite fielding only one complete varsity team, perhaps no Santa Fe League cross-country program enjoyed more success Wednesday afternoon than Bellarmine-Jefferson High.
The Guards took part in the second three-hour-long Camino Del Rey Assn. cluster meet, which included squads from the Del Rey and Camino Real leagues , at Arcadia County Park.
Bell-Jeff took first in the Santa Fe League girls’ race, led by sophomore winner Caitlyn Couch, while freshman Nick Montijo was second for the short-handed boys.
PHOTOS: Bell-Jeff runs to victory at Arcadia County Park
“Our goal for the boys is to finish 1-2 in league like last season,” Bell-Jeff Coach Jim Couch said. “For the girls, Caitlyn wanted to get the best time of anyone in any league and fell short. As a team, though, we still did really well.”
The Guards girls ran to victory for a second straight meet, this time with 29 points, easily knocking off second-place Downey St. Matthias/Pius X, which finished with 58 points. St. Anthony took third with 60 points.
While the gap in team scoring was large, it was dwarfed by the separation Caitlyn Couch created against the rest of the league.
Couch, daughter of Jim Couch, was so far ahead that she lapped around 15 runners in finishing with a blistering time of 18 minutes, 40.2 seconds on the grassy, quick course.
“I love running here, even though this is my first time on the three-mile course,” said Caitlyn Couch, who had competed at Arcadia as a youth on the abbreviated two-mile course. “My goal today was to get in the [17-minute mark], so I’m pissed that I missed that. I have a plan, an idea of what I would like to accomplish and I have to do better than this.”
Couch’s mark was the fifth-best in any of the three leagues as the Del Rey League winner, Bishop Amat’s Olivia Paez, finished with the top time of 18:05.4.
If there was one disadvantage for Caitlyn Couch in comparison to every other runner, it’s that the Santa Fe League girls’ varsity race, the final event of the day, did not include a pace bike as did every other competition.
“The challenge for me is that there wasn’t anyone I was going after,” she said.
Couch’s teammate, sophomore Valerie Zavala, also mentioned the lack of someone to pace off of.
“It’s difficult to run sometimes when you don’t have anyone out there pushing you,” Zavala said. “That was my situation.”
Zavala finished second in a mark of 20:08 and was in no man’s land, more than two minutes behind Couch, but also nearly two minutes ahead of teammate and third-place finisher Samantha Geyer (21:49.1).
Bell-Jeff’s remaining scorers were freshman Dalila Rincon (10th, 23:19.8) and sophomore Corsette Balmy (13th, 23:42.2).
As for the boys, the Guards did not field a complete team, running only three individuals.
Despite the turnout, Bell-Jeff nearly had another victory before Montijo slowed over the final half-mile and took second in 18:12.5.
“I tried as best as I could, but I just got tired at the end,” Montijo said. “This was my first time on the course and I was just looking to get better than 19 minutes.”
Montijo was locked in a showdown for first place with St. Anthony freshman Evan Vance with each runner taking turns in first place.
It wasn’t until the final half-mile when Vance kicked into another gear and took home the victory in 17:53.7.
“If you look at Nick, he wasn’t even close to that guy the first time we ran against St. Anthony,” Jim Couch said. “He’s made some big strides and I think he’ll catch him.”
Guards sophomore Tim Carlson also placed in the top 20, taking 17th in 20:25.3.
“Tim was sick earlier, but he’s run a lot closer to the top guy,” Jim Couch said. “I think by the end of the season, we’ll have the top two guys in league. Give me a month and check back [on Nov. 4] at the league finals.”
St. Matthias/Pius X won the boys’ meet with 32 points.