La Cañada High girls’ cross-country wins Rio Hondo League’s first meet
SAN MARINO — Had there been any question before the season of whether or not the La Cañada High boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams would factor in the Rio Hondo League race, Thursday afternoon’s first league meet at Lacy Park offered an immediate answer.
The girls reasserted themselves as the team to beat after a 33-37 victory over South Pasadena, led by a breakout winning effort from freshman Katie Scoville, while the boys took third but were within 20 points of winner San Marino.
“I’m very satisfied with what we accomplished today,” said Spartans interim coach Jennifer Loya, who took over for head coach Jenn Mora Strople, who is on maternity leave. “This is a very difficult course and it’s real easy to get lost, so for us to win is exciting.”
Scoville showed poise perhaps not expected of a freshman as she was third at the one-mile point of the three-mile course behind teammate Colleen Mispagel and San Marino’s Sarah Linton.
Scoville then moved up to second at the two-mile marker before creating distance between herself and Linton over the final 200 meters en route to a victory in a time of 19 minutes, 33 seconds.
“I wanted to make sure I could finish strong,” said Scoville, who briefly ran off the race route midway through. “This is a real confusing course and I was just trying to make sure I was still on.”
The victory was the first for the Spartans since the 2012 season and provided the team with early ammunition versus defending champion San Marino, which was missing its top runner and finished third with 58 points.
Linton took second in 19:35, which was a little ahead of third-place Mispagel, who finished in 19:41.
“I’m not surprised Katie won today,” Loya said. “It was either going to be her or Colleen.”
Kallie Rushing was third for the Spartans and sixth overall in 20:21. La Cañada’s Lynette Aslanian (11th, 21:03) and Eleanor Marki (13th, 21:25) rounded out their team’s scoring.
Runner-up South Pasadena was paced by Emily Ye’s fourth-place effort (20:13).
On the boys’ side, improvement was evident in the numbers.
The Spartans were a distant third place at the Rio Hondo League finals at Lacy Park last season in finishing with 80 points, well behind South Pasadena (27) and San Marino (36).
The gap certainly narrowed, as the Spartans placed third with 50 points behind San Marino (32) and South Pasadena (41).
“This is definitely a boost for us and it’s great to see,” Spartans Coach Nick LaCapria said. “Our goal coming in was to try and see if we can bump off either San Marino or South Pasadena for second.
“They’re both great teams and we didn’t get there today, but I’m excited with the scores and with what I saw.”
Senior Ethan Angold paced his team by taking third with a mark of 16:57 in a race won by South Pasadena’s Cullen Irvine (16:34). First-place San Marino was paced by a silver-medal performance from John Judge (16:41).
“I didn’t do as well as I’ve done in the past, but we did OK as a team,” said Angold, who entered with a course personal-best time of 16:09. “It was just good to get out here and run. We’ve had the heat that’s cut back on our practice time, so we’re still a little behind.”
The Spartans certainly boasted a strong top three, as Ethan Crane was fifth (17:11) and Seve Rodriguez took sixth (17:12).
It was a while, though, before the Spartans’ next two scorers crossed, as Ryan Van Slooten took 14th (17:57) and Joshua Frederich was 22nd (18:23).
“That’s what we’re going to work on next, getting our No. 4 and 5 runners higher up or closer to our top three guys,” LaCapria said. “If we can do that, we have a chance to really do something at these league meets. I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far.”