Crescenta Valley boys, Burroughs’ Virtue turn in big efforts at league meet

ARCADIA — If the Pacific League’s first cross-country race is a true precursor for the rest of the season, then the Crescenta Valley High program and Burroughs’ Emily Virtue are in for big years.

The Falcons boys captured their first league race in years behind the fourth straight league individual triumph for senior Colin FitzGerald, while Virtue held off all challengers to claim her seventh consecutive girls’ race in an event won by Arcadia at Arcadia County Park on Tuesday.

The league switched its scoring from head-to-head to invitational style, which is used in just about every other meet, over the summer.

That system produced a final score of 21 points and a rare victory for the Crescenta Valley boys, who finished third in league last season behind co-champions Burroughs and Arcadia.

The Apaches took second with 40 points, while the Indians placed third (85), Burbank took fourth (94), Glendale was fifth (141), Pasadena notched sixth (174) and Hoover was seventh (206).

When asked the last time his Falcons won a league meet, Crescenta Valley coach Mark Evans was at a loss.

“It’s been a while, I’m not really sure,” said Evans, whose team was ranked No. 4 in the latest CIF Southern Section Division I poll. “I think this is what we expected. This is what we should have done based on racing and training this season and over the summer. We were ranked high in CIF and this sort of validates that.”

Crescenta Valley’s previous league victory came in the league’s opening meet in 2012.

For the last couple of years, the Falcons had seen FitzGerald soar to victories, while the rest of the squad lagged behind, including at last season’s league finals where the team’s next-highest placer was eighth.

On Tuesday, Crescenta Valley crossed its scoring five through eight spots with Zach Johnson (second, 14:51.5), Spencer Geck (fourth, 15:02.2), Manan Vats (sixth, 15:04.8) and Artin Allahverdian (eighth, 15:06.4) following close behind.

“To share this success with the team is awesome. Since eighth grade I’ve been pushing these guys,” FitzGerald said. “As a team, I felt we had a shot to do something special and I think we’re just starting to get a taste of what that is.”

Burroughs, which is ranked No. 9 in Division I, ran without its top runner from a year ago, Alexander Hirsch, who was injured.

The Indians missed his scoring and leadership, but still received a top-five effort from senior Jagdeep Chalal (fifth, 15:04.8). Raymond Berrellez (18th, 15:46.7) and Jeron Straker (19th, 15:53.1) also placed in the top 20 for Burroughs.

Youthful fourth-place Burbank turned in three top-20 efforts from sophomore Victor Goli (13th, 15:36.5), freshman Andres Leon (15th, 15:40) and sophomore Dayne Ellis (17th, 15:46).

Glendale junior Arvin Sales (16th, 15:44.9) and Hoover junior Omar Adbelrahim (32nd, 16:51.3) paced their squads.

On the girls’ side, Burroughs’ Virtue extended her league dominance, though she received more competition than usual.

The Indians senior ran to victory in 17:20.5, which was off her personal-best of 16:42, though she wasn’t running for a best mark.

“I ran at Mt. Carmel on Saturday and I was still trying to recover from that,” Virtue said. “My team was trying out pack running and I just decided to go with whoever was running the race and not push too hard until the end.”

In team competition, fourth-ranked defending league champion Arcadia held off a strong battle from Crescenta Valley, which finished third last season, by a 35-44 score. Burbank earned third (62), while Burroughs (84), Glendale (154), Hoover (182) and Pasadena (184) followed.

Tuesday marked the league debut of Bellarmine-Jefferson transfer Caitlyn Couch with Crescenta Valley.

Couch had her area-best league winning streak of nine straight victories in the Camino Real and Del Rey leagues snapped as the senior took fourth in 17:34.

“It’s a lot different from the Camino Del Rey [Assn.],” said Couch, daughter of longtime Bell-Jeff Coach Jim Couch. “I can’t just cruise through and win here. I put in a lot of work and I was happy, but I know I can do better.”

Couch was Crescenta Valley’s top runner and was a few steps ahead of teammate Naila Ortiz, who took fifth in 17:57.9. Sophia Atin (ninth, 18:37.6), Samantha Moore (10th, 18:48.8) and Gabriela Borraez (16th, 19:28.3) rounded out the Falcons’ scoring.

Third-place Burbank had a familiar last name leading the charge as sophomore Sol Fernandez, younger sister of 2014 league champion Candela Fernandez, took seventh in 18:28.6.

“My confidence was working for me,” said Fernandez, who topped her previous best course time of 19:10. “Today I really felt that team spirit. I wanted to pass the girls I set out to pass and I did and I wanted to make my teammates and coaches happy.”

Noemi Apreza (eighth, 18:36.5), Shalom Mejia (12th, 18:57.7), Jordan Delgado (15th, 19:23.9) and Lydia Forsyth (20th, 19:32.2) finished off Burbank’s scoring.

Burroughs boasted two additional top-20 placers outside of Virtue in Vanessa Reveles (17th, 19:30.2) and Julianna Navarro (19th, 19:31.5).

Glendale’s Vanneza Venzor (26th, 20:22.8) and Hoover’s Lia Yaghisaei (29th, 20:46.9) turned in the best efforts for their schools.

andrew.cmpa@latimes.com

Twitter: @campadresports