La Cañada cross-country shines despite key absences
SAN MARINO — What could have very well been a disastrous day for the La Cañada High cross-country program was anything but at Thursday’s first Rio Hondo League meet at Lacy Park.
The Spartans competed without their top boys’ and girls’ individual runners and were impressive nonetheless as the defending champion girls romped to a 25-66 victory over South Pasadena, while the boys had their best finish in years by taking second.
“The most exciting thing is that you have two young teams,” La Cañada Coach Nick LaCapria said. “On the boys’ side, this is a group that two years ago won the freshman race at [Mt. San Antonio College]. On the girls’ side, we have some great freshmen coming up and other young runners who are making a big impact. Like I said, it’s real exciting.”
The last time the Spartan girls raced at Lacy Park, they tied South Pasadena with 33 points at the Rio Hondo League finals on Nov. 5 and took home the league championship due to the sixth-place finisher tiebreaker.
That day, La Cañada Valley Sun Girls’ Athlete of the Year Katie Scoville breezed to her second straight league crown.
Without Scoville, it seemed like the stage was set for a Spartans fall on Thursday.
Yet, La Cañada rallied without its dynamic, but ill captain as sophomore Adena DiPaolo, the Spartans’ No. 2 runner last year, took first Thursday in 18 minutes, 57.3 seconds.
“We just had to work on staying together and running as a team and just trying to beat as many people from other schools as we could,” DiPaolo said. “We focused on running as a team.”
DiPaolo and freshman teammate Sarah Arthur took the lead a half-mile into the race and maintained that one-two status for almost the entire run, even when both ran off the course during the first inner loop.
Only over the final 100 meters did San Marino’s Olivia Ruiz pass Arthur (19:01.8) for second in 19 minutes flat.
Even so, Arthur was pleased afterward.
“This was my first time racing here although we went over it on practice,” Arthur said. “It wasn’t too bad, but that hill at the end was kind of tiring.”
Morgan Bowman (fourth, 19:19.3), Madison Pirkey (eighth, 19:44.3) and Kallie Rushing (ninth, 19:50.7) closed out the scoring for the Spartans.
San Marino finished third with 67 points, while Monrovia (86) and Temple City (94) capped off the scoring.
As for the boys, the final score will read that South Pasadena beat La Cañada, 25-59. However, there wasn’t a sense of defeat anywhere in the Spartans’ camp.
Last season, La Cañada finished fourth in its first league race before rallying to take third at league finals.
Thursday’s finish was the best for a La Cañada boys’ squad in LaCapria’s four-year tenure.
“It’s a very encouraging result,” LaCapria said. “I’m really proud of the guys and I think they can still do better.”
La Cañada’s second-place finish came without the services of junior Ethan Crane, the squad’s top runner last year. Crane was also out due to an illness.
This time, it was Ryan Van Slooten who led the way as the runner placed fifth in 16:25.8.
“All you’re trying to do is run your best race,” said Van Slooten, who held off South Pasadena’s Jaehyung Choi (sixth, 16:31.2) down the final 100 meters. “I just tried to save something for my kick, where I usually do well. It was nice to hold off that South Pas guy.”
Spartans senior Seve Rodriguez took eighth in 16:42.6. La Ca Cañada’s final three scorers consisted of Patrick Salter (13th, 17:02), Shaan Sandhu (15th, 17:17.3) and Lucas Echternach (18th, 17:39.4).
South Pasadena’s Kieran Press-Reynolds, the league’s defending champion, finished first again in 15:39.
Temple City and San Marino finished with 89 points, while Monrovia took fifth with 103 points.
