Burbank boys’ track defeats Burroughs to win league championship
BURBANK — Burbank High track and field coach Darin Wolf made the decision that this season, his 18th leading the program, would be his last.
Coaching his final Burbank-Burroughs cross-town rivalry meet Thursday evening, his boys’ team gave Wolf a nice going-away present.
Behind three individual victories from Sergio Aguilar, the Bulldogs defeated the Indians, 87-48, at Memorial Field to secure the Pacific League championship.
It was the the second league title in three seasons for the boys and only the second for the program in 33 years.
In the girls’ meet, Burroughs earned a 72-61 victory over Burbank.
“I think we just got to the point that our boys’ team expects to do well,” Wolf said. “That expectation was there this season.
“I’ll take this, I’ll go out with a win. I’m just proud of the program and what we were able to accomplish.”
It was also the final rival meet for Burroughs’ John Peebles as head coach, as he will step aside and assist the program next season.
The Indians competed without a group of top athletes, including All-Area Girls’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year Emily Virtue and distance standouts Jagdeep Chahal — the 2017 league cross-country champion — and Alexander Hirsch.
“We have some athletes who are a little banged up,” Peebles said. “And [Chahal and Hirsch] are running in the Invitational 3,200 at Mount SAC [Friday], so we want them to be rested for that.”
Aguilar had a fine showing in Thursday’s competition, winning the 110-meter hurdles in 15.53 seconds, the 300 hurdles in 40.95 and the long jump in 19 feet 8 inches.
“Winning the league title was very important to us,” Aguilar said. “We thought we should have won the title last year. So with that in mind, we all came back this year and we were focused on winning it and we worked very hard on that.
“Getting the title for Wolf was also on our minds. We wanted to be able to win it for him.”
The Bulldogs had a double individual winner in James Smyth, who took the shot put (45-2 1/2) and the discus (133-5).
Burbank also received first-place finishes from Cole Le’Au in the 100 (11.59), Bryan David in the 400 (50.71) and Victor Goli in the 1,600 (4:29.95).
Burroughs received wins from AZ Arnaud in the 200 (22.90), Jeron Straker in the 800 (2:00.80), Raymond Berreles in the 3,200 (10:07.30), Eli Gault-Crabb in the pole vault (11-0), David Lennstrom in the high jump (5-10) and Ryan Thomas in the triple jump (39-1).
On the girls’ side, the Indians had a trio of double winners in Kobi Wayne in the 100 (12.69) and the long jump (16-7), Elizabeth Surrat in the 400 (1:01.18) and 300 hurdles (49.71) and Priscilla Murillo in the shot put (29-8) and discus (90-1).
Also picking up wins for Burroughs were Jada Martinez-Reese in the 200 (26.01), Lakely Nealis in the 800 (2:25.83), Jordan Guzman in the 3,200 (11:48.12) and Alex Akobian in the pole vault (10-6).
“I am usually open to helping other teammates and helping them kind of keeps me from getting into my own head too much and worrying about what I have to do,” Akobian said. “And with the other team, I try to be friendly with the other girls and not really look at it as a rivalry thing. So today was pretty laid back like any other meet.”
The Bulldogs got victories from Shalom Mejia in the 1,600 (5:29.93), Alisa Petrosyan in the 100 hurdles (18.42), Tamryn Betts in the high jump (5-0) and Andrea Castresana in the triple jump (30-8).
The teams will take part in the Pacific League prelims on April 27 and the finals on May 3, both at Arcadia High.
Twitter: @jefftsports
