Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy’s Grahn takes silver in second cross-country meet
LA CRESCENTA — Having already turned in successful debuts at the opening Mission League cross-country meet in September, both the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy and St. Francis programs looked for improvement Thursday afternoon.
The Tologs showed some growth, while the Golden Knights displayed some versatility in the second league meet at Crescenta Valley Park on a 94-degree day in which Tologs senior Kayla Grahn finished second overall for third-place Flintridge Sacred Heart and fifth-place St. Francis was paced by a freshman.
“We closed the gap today and that’s what I liked most,” Tologs Coach Kirk Nishiyama said. “As for Kayla, I don’t remember the last time we had somebody finish that high. Maybe [Andrea] Kropp was the last person.”
Kropp placed second at the 2009 Mission League finals, a spot Grahn may very well possess soon enough.
As for Thursday, the senior was third, 200 meters in behind the Sherman Oaks Notre Dame duo of Mariah Mora and Elizabeth Coda, who finished first and second, respectively, at the first league meet at Woodley Park on Sept. 10.
This time, however, Grahn passed up Coda at about the midway mark and never looked back en route to placing second in 20 minutes, 15 seconds.
“I honestly thought I’d do better today, but it was real hot,” Grahn said. “I like this course better than I like Woodley and I think that’s why I did so well.”
Grahn entered Thursday’s race with a bit of buzz after turning in a strong effort at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday in placing seventh in the Division IV race, ahead of Mora, who was 17th.
“I really don’t know where that came from, but it was a great race,” said Grahn, a La Cañada Flintridge resident. “I was hoping to stay a little closer with [Moro], but I liked the competition.”
Overall, the Tologs placed third with 64 points, trailing race-winner Harvard-Westlake (41) and Notre Dame (59).
In placing third, the Tologs more than halved their deficit with Notre Dame from 12 points at the first meet to five points.
Monica Collins was second for the Tologs and 10th overall (21:47), with teammates Sarah Vega (16th, 22:40), Franny Cross (17th, 22:45) and Sarah Peterson (19th, 23:09) all following.
Moro went two-for-two in victories on Thursday as she clinched the win in 20:00.
As for the boys’ race, as expected, Loyola was downright dominant even without its top runner in rolling to a victory with 20 points, while Harvard-Westlake was second with 60 points, Alemany was third with 77 points, Notre Dame was fourth with 83 points and St. Francis placed fifth with 96 points.
“I thought that for us to finish in the top four, we’d have to get our five runners through the top 25,” St. Francis Coach Pat Donovan said. “We didn’t do that, but I still didn’t think we did poorly. It’s just a good league and we’re going to have to do better.”
The finish marked a step back for St. Francis, which tied for fourth with Notre Dame at the first meet with 94 points.
The good news for the Golden Knights, though, is that they had a newcomer step up in freshman Ben Grace, who placed 12th in 17:26.
“This was my first time running here outside of a time trial,” Grace said. “It was just so hot and I couldn’t even spit.”
Adam Lyons was next for St. Francis in taking 14th (17:42), while Ryan Hambley (17th, 17:53), Chris Rodriguez (21st, 18:05) and Ben Waugh (32nd, 19:06) all scored for St. Francis.