Burroughs cross-country’s Virtue is patient in upset victory

ARCADIA — Upsets and surprises are starting to become the norm for Pacific League cross-country and Thursday afternoon’s first league meet of the season was no exception.

A year after the Burroughs High boys’ cross-country team won its first-ever Pacific League title, the Media City school accomplished another first as sophomore Emily Virtue became her school’s first-ever Pacific League meet winner by upsetting reigning All-Area Girls’ Runner of the Year Candela Fernandez at Arcadia County Park.

PHOTOS: Pacific League girls’ cross country at Arcadia Park

In that same race, Arcadia, which shared the league crown with Burbank and Crescenta Valley last season, went undefeated in the dual-meet scoring format, while Burroughs was second, Burbank earned third and Crescenta Valley took fourth.

On the boys’ side, Arcadia made it a team sweep by going 5-0 behind race-winner Phillip Rocha, while Crescenta Valley was second, Burroughs was third and Burbank nabbed fourth.

“She been working hard this summer,” Burroughs Coach John Peebles said of Virtue. “She’s more than capable.”

Virtue took a drafting approach to chasing down Fernandez, as the Burroughs sophomore was no more than two seconds behind Fernandez, who entered as the reigning league individual champion and winner of three straight league races.

“Our coaches were telling me that drafting was best,” Virtue said. “When I got near the end, I was honestly dying. I didn’t know if I had anything left and couldn’t even turn around to see if anyone was behind me. I just went forward.”

Virtue didn’t make her move until the final 300 meters, when she kicked into a final gear and took home the victory in 17 minutes, 11.25 seconds.

“I honestly didn’t think that I was going to pass her,” Virtue said of Fernandez.

Fernandez finished in second with a mark of 17:16.84 and wasn’t too disappointed with the upset result.

“Emily has been doing really well this summer and I congratulate her, it’s nice to have some competition,” Fernandez said. “I think a lot of people think that I want to have this big lead and that doesn’t work best for me. I like competition and I look forward to our next race.”

Perhaps lost in Virtue’s win was an almost equally impressive 27-32 win for Burroughs over crosstown rival Burbank for second place.

While Burroughs didn’t have another runner in the top 10, the squad took four of the next five spots as Heidi Eligio (11th, 18:56.22), Lakely Nealis (12th, 19:18.25), Sapphire Sandoval (14th, 19:26.37) and Eileen Eckles (15th, 19:33.84) rounded out the scoring.

After Fernandez, Burbank’s Kira Bochard (18:12.09) and Caroline Adams (18:21.81) took fifth and sixth, respectively, but no other Bulldog finished in the top 20.

Crescenta Valley, which upset Arcadia at last year’s final to earn a share of a league title, took fourth and was led by Grace McAuley (10th, 18:45.53) and Annie Myers (17th, 20:08.56).

Fifth-place Hoover’s best runner was Renee Sallakian, who was 26th in 21:41.94, while sixth-place Glendale was paced by Andrea Martinez (27th, 22:09.22).

Holly Lung also finished third in 18:02.41 for winning Arcadia.

There wasn’t too much suspense on the boys’ side where Rocha rolled to a victory in 14:59.03 as the Apaches knocked off reigning champ Burroughs, which finished third.

With the gradation of its top three runners, Burroughs leaned on Alexander Hirsch, who finished second in 15:03.06.

“We definitely feel the pressure because of last year,” Hirsch said. “We’re doing everything we can to stay on top and we’ll get better.”

Justin Villagran followed for Burroughs in fifth place (15:15.75), while Timothy Wells (15:24.50) took 10th and Evan Thomas was 16th (15:42.15)

Second place on Thursday belonged to surging Crescenta Valley, which was paced by third-place finisher Colin Fitzgerald (15:11.97).

“I was coming back from Woodbridge on Saturday and all I wanted to do was have a solid performance,” FitzGerald said. “I just wanted to show that I was fit and ready to race.”

FitzGerald had a solid crew following in Phillip Thomas (sixth, 15:16.59), Kyle Dickinson (seventh, 15:19.12), Armin Cardenas (11th, 15:28.66) and Zach Johnson (15th, 15:41.25).

Burbank took fourth place with one top-15 effort from Adam Navar (13th, 15:34.41), while fifth-place Glendale was led by Paulo Vazquez (14th, 15:35.21) and sixth-place Hoover was paced by Chris Chereque (28th, 16:45.09).