Crescenta Valley, Hoover earn Pacific League track and field championships
Five athletes from Crescenta Valley High and Hoover captured seven Pacific League championships and earned a few more CIF advancements out of Friday evening’s finals at Arcadia High.
As expected, Crescenta Valley standout Colin FitzGerald did not disappoint.
The reigning All-Area Boys’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year captured two league crowns, although it did not appear so early.
In perhaps the most exciting event of the day, Burroughs junior Jagdeep Chahal was mobbed at the finish line as it was announced he upset FitzGerald by a razor’s margin in the 1,600-meter run, 4 minutes, 26.56 seconds to 4:26.57.
While Chahal celebrated and FitzGerald lamented, about 15 minutes later the result was amended to list both runners as champions with final times of 4:26.56.
FitzGerald was unaware of the change when he ran the 3,200, where he defended his crown by capturing the title for a second straight year in 9:32.77.
“I just went out hard and it felt like an idiotic move because I got tired, but it worked,” FitzGerald said of his win in the 3,200. “It didn’t hit me how cool it was to win the 3,200 last year as a sophomore until I got back here, so I wanted to win.”
Senior Claire Schlueter arguably turned in her squad’s strongest effort Friday in picking up a pair of victories.
Schlueter avenged a second-place finish in the 100-meter league finals in 2016 with a victory in a mark of 12.45 seconds, which bested her 12.5 from a year ago.
Schlueter wasn’t done, though, and added a win in the long jump in a distance of 18-4 1/4. Schlueter held off a charge from Muir’s Micah Fulton (18-2 1/4).
It was historic day for Hoover as senior Chris White won a rare Pacific League title for the Tornadoes as the three-sport star claimed the shot put title in 50 feet.
According to Tornadoes Coach Jack Sallakian, the veteran coach has never had a shot put winner in his 12 years.
“It’s special, real special,” Sallakian said. “I think it’s been since 2008 the last time we had someone win a championship.”
Crescenta Valley freshman Eileen Walker kept the league’s high jump crown a family affair when she was a surprise winner and claimed the title with a leap of 4-11. Walker tied Claire Codding, but hit 4-11 in fewer attempts for the victory.
Walker’s win marked the fifth straight for the Walker family as big sister Emmie Walker (Azusa Pacific), who was in the stands, had claimed four consecutive titles.
“It’s hard to compete when you’re going against a teammate in one sense,” Eileen Walker said, ‘but the good thing is that you know what you’re facing.”
Crescenta Valley’s Roy Choe was Glendale Unified’s last champion as the junior clinched the high jump in 6-1.
The Crescenta Valley girls added some CIF Southern Section Division I qualifiers in the 400-meter girls’ relay team (second, 49.89), the Falcons 1,600 relay squad (second, 4:09.24), Kristian Carrillo in the 300 hurdles (second, 46.98) and Jennifer Saengsri in the 300 hurdles (third, 49.52).
The Crescenta Valley boys added two more qualifiers to CIF in Dylan Wilbur in the 800 (second, 1:57.98) and Choe in the long jump (second, 21-1 1/4).
The Division I preliminaries will take place on May 13 at Trabuco Hills High.
White will have company at the Division III preliminaries on May 13 at Estancia High as he’ll be joined by fellow Hoover football player and wrestler Azad Markosian.
The senior finished both third in the shot put (44 3-1/2) and in the discus (126-9).
“I was tense in the shot because I really wanted to make it and it’s great to do it,” Markosian said. “It felt good to represent Hoover with Chris.”
Glendale High did not win a Pacific League title, nor advance an athlete past Friday.
