All-Area Girls’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year: Burroughs High’s Virtue has no area equal

Sitting between two cars in the parking lot adjacent to the Riverside City Cross-Country Course, Burroughs High junior Emily Virtue placed her hands on her knees and dropped her head in deep contemplation.

The area’s best runner just finished fifth at the CIF Southern Section Division I Championships on a sloppy and muddy course on Nov. 19.

Her time of 17 minutes, 09.1 seconds was the second-best she had ever run on the course, earned her fifth in a super-competitive Division I and placed her No. 16 overall across all five divisions and 853 total runners.

Virtue was nearly 30 seconds ahead of the area’s next closest runner.

Some of that info was relayed by her coaches to a runner who seemed despondent.

For outsiders, the action may have been seen as over the top, especially considering how well Virtue performed.

Yet, Virtue was not angry or upset, but rather thought about how she would best use her performance as fuel going forward.

“I know it looked like I was mad, but I wasn’t disappointed because I was still able to make it to state,” Virtue said. “I just think I didn’t have the best race and afterward I was just more tired than anything.”

That day’s effort was just one of many highlights in another banner season for the junior, who has been named the 2016 All-Area Girls’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year by the writers of the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-Press, and La Cañada Valley Sun. It is Virtue’s second consecutive runner of the year honor.

Virtue’s expectations for 2016 were built after a sophomore year in which she won the Pacific League championship, finished second at the Southern Section Division I finals (17:45) and placed sixth in state (17:39).

Aside from competition, Virtue also boasts a 4.6 grade-point average and is enrolled in three advancement placement classes.

“Emily is an exceptional student-athlete,” Burroughs Coach John Peebles said. “And she sets a high standard for herself. She didn’t have the sort of start to the season she wanted to, but I don’t know if anyone else around here had a better year than her.”

Though Virtue missed most of the month of September due to Junior Olympics training, she was stellar in an abbreviated season.

Virtue won three races and never finished higher than ninth place in any competition.

The junior made her season debut at the Pacific League’s first meet at Crescenta Valley Park on Sept. 22 and hardly skipped a beat as she won in a time of 18:18.18, which was more than 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Eryca Yamane (19:30.15) of Arcadia.

Virtue captured the league’s next two league meets, including when she put on a show at the Pacific League finals at Crescenta Valley Park on Nov. 3.

At that event, the Indians runner blew away the competition to win her second consecutive league title, triumphing by convincing fashion in a mark of 18:18.88. Arcadia’s Holly Lung took second in 19:05.18.

Virtue’s finals win was the sixth straight league victory for the youngster, which extended the area’s second-longest streak, which trails only Bellarmine-Jefferson’s Caitlyn Couch (nine).

In between the Pacific League races, Virtue’s most elite competition may have taken place on Oct. 22 when she competed in the Division I&II Individual Sweepstakes at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

Virtue was a little off her game, but still turned in a strong effort to finish ninth in a time of 18:02.

As for the postseason, Virtue began her quest back to the CIF State Meet when she finished second in the third heat of the Southern Section Division I preliminaries in 17:18.4 in Riverside on Nov. 11.

Unfortunately for the Burbank resident, prelims brought about the end of the season for her teammates, as the Indians placed 13th with 342 points and missed the cut to the following week’s finals back in Riverside.

Back on her own, Virtue started off strong in the Division I finals a year after she took second in the same event.

Virtue was second midway through the race and was in third with about 100 meters to go before a strong kick from Great Oak’s Sydney Belus (third, 17:07.7) and Nicole Rice (fourth, 17:08.2) bumped her into fifth place.

Walnut’s Chloe Arriaga won the championship in 16:47.5.

“I raced Chloe a lot last year and then this year, I didn’t as much,” Virtue said. “So, when she took off on me, I tried to do the same and it was a bad decision. I went out too fast and I ran the race badly. I was disappointed because I know I could have done better.”

Putting aside those feelings, Virtue turned in one more strong effort at the state finals on Nov. 26.

She finished ninth in the Division I race in a time of 17:48.2 and clipped Arriaga (10th, 17:49.2) in the process.

“It was a nice way to finish my season,” Virtue said. “It didn’t always go the way I liked, but I was proud of what I accomplished and am grateful for a good year.”