Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, St. Francis High cross-country show improvement in first Mission League meet

VAN NUYS — Even though the postseason is two months away, the jockeying, evaluating and analyzing began in regards to Mission League cross-country Wednesday afternoon.

Both the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy and St. Francis High boys’ cross-country teams saw mostly positive performances from their squads at the league’s first meet at Woodley Park and each is hoping that the efforts will be a springboard to league success and perhaps more.

The Tologs placed third, while the Golden Knights vaulted into fourth, much to the pleasure and cautious optimism of each program’s coach.

“We have a lot to work on, but this was a good start,” Flintridge Sacred Heart Coach Kirk Nishiyama said. “We had some girls step up. The times were a little slow because of the heat, but I liked the effort.”

Flintridge Sacred Heart finished third at the 2013 Mission League finals, which also marked the last time the squad ran at Woodley Park.

On Wednesday, the Tologs again placed third with 69 points behind CIF Southern Section Division IV seventh-ranked Harvard-Westlake (35 points) and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (57 points).

While the Tologs’ finish wasn’t unexpected, perhaps the surprise came from Kayla Grahn.

The senior, who finished seventh at league finals last season, took third in 19 minutes, 55.89 seconds.

“I guess I’m satisfied although that wasn’t my best time,” said Grahn, who ran 19:34 at Woodley last season. “I fell a little back early and then had to close strong.”

Grahn was sixth about a half mile into the race before moving up to fourth at the halfway point and taking third behind race winner Mariah Moro (19:42.36) of Notre Dame and runner-up Elizabeth Coda (19:52.33), also of Notre Dame.

“That’s the way I train and that’s how I prefer to run,” Grahn said. “I like to have a strong finish.”

One of Nishiyama’s goals this season and every other the past 20 years has been to cultivate a strong pack.

The Tologs’ next scoring four all finished right after each other as Katie Gulick (22:26.42), Bobbie Byrne (22:24.67), Sarah Vega (22:54.21) and Sarah Peterson (23:09.27) all finished 15th through 18th.

“Now, we just have to work on closing that gap,” Nishiyama said. “There was too much space between Kayla and the rest of the team. If we want to move up and beat one of the top two teams and get to CIF, we’re going to have to close that gap.”

Perhaps the most awesome display of pack running came from Harvard-Westlake, which had its seven runners take spots five through 11.

On the boys’ side, the Golden Knights certainly shined in finishing with 94 points, which placed the squad in a fourth-place tie with Notre Dame.

The deadlock was broken due to St. Francis’ sixth runner, who finished well ahead of the Knights’ No. 6 finisher.

“I really liked what I saw,” Golden Knights Coach Pat Donovan said. “We’re definitely ahead of last year. We still have a lot of work to do, but we had some great finishes up front that really helped.”

The senior brother duo of Jack and Adam Lyons paced St. Francis on Wednesday.

Last season, the Golden Knights failed to break a runner into the league’s top 15.

There was no such bad luck this year, as Jack Lyons was 11th in 17:00.92, just slightly ahead of Adam’s 13th-place effort (17:04.52.)

“It was so hot and so dry out there, that was a big problem,” Adam Lyons said.

While Loyola steamrolled to a victory with 20 points, the Cubs’ performance may have actually served the Golden Knights.

“We wanted to do what we could to hang with those guys,” Jack Lyons said. “We wanted to go out hard.”

Adam Lyons certainly did, at one time cracking the top seven before falling as far back as 18th.

Jack and Adam, recovered, and both earned spots in the top 15.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had someone there,” Donovan said. “If we can get some of the other guys to move up a little bit, we may have something.”

St. Francis’ Ben Grace was 19th in 17:29.02, while Ryan Hambley was 24th in 17:39.08 and Chris Rodriguez took 27th in 18:26.01.

Perhaps just as important, though, as any scorer was the finish from St. Francis Griffin Taylor.

The Golden Knights’ No. 6 runner was 28th overall in 18:26.55, which beat Notre Dame’s No. 6 Alex Tovar (33rd, 19:28.86).

After Loyola, Alemany took second with 51 points, while third-place Harvard-Westlake tallied 84 points.

Loyola’s Charlie Sherman won the race in 16:14.02.