Burroughs boys’ track downs Arcadia to stay unbeaten in league
ARCADIA — With the Arcadia High boys’ track team being a perennial powerhouse in the Pacific League, Burroughs received some encouraging news two weeks ago.
That news came in the form of a Burbank win over the Apaches, giving the Indians hope that they too could possibly topple the defending league champions.
Burroughs realized that aspiration Wednesday, as it remained undefeated in league with a 72 ½-63 ½ victory over the Apaches in a double-dual meet that included Hoover at Arcadia High.
Unfortunately for the Indians girls’ team, it lost to Arcadia, 113 1/2-22 1/2.
The win for the Indians (6-0 in league) sets up a showdown for the Pacific League title. Burroughs will take on the only other undefeated league team in Burbank Wednesday at Memorial Field.
“Honestly, the way I looked at it going in was that regardless of how we did [Wednesday] against Arcadia, if we had a chance to win league we would have to beat Burbank anyway,” Burroughs Coach John Peebles said. “We knew Burbank was going to be the big one, but we still had to come out and compete [Wednesday].”
Leading to the win over the Apaches (5-1) was a sweep in the pole vault, sweeps in both the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays events and a fine performance from Niko Guerrero, who placed first in two events.
The performance of the day belonged to Matt Schwartz in the pole vault. The Burroughs senior won the event with a personal-best mark of 15 feet 1 inch, besting his previous best of 15-0 set Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational.
Schwartz, who sits at No. 3 on the Burroughs all-time pole vault list, had three attempts at 15-6. In his final attempt, he made it over the bar but just brushed it with his stomach on the way down to come up short.
“Making it over 15-1 was just good for my morale to help me with the next jump,” Schwartz said. “I am definitely staying more consistent this season than I have been in previous years. But I really want that 15-6 and hopefully I can get it.”
Behind Schwartz, teammate Kent Truong finished second (13-6) and Mark Allsman was third (10-6) to complete the sweep.
Burroughs was able to win the meet despite three sweeps by Arcadia in the shot put, discus and long jump.
The Indians began the meet by winning the 4x100 relay with the team of Augusto Corea, Robert Brennan, Andrew Williams and Corwin Scherer (43.77). The Indians ended the day by taking the 4x400 relay behind Everth Vargas, Ricky Mendez, Scherer and Brennan.
Guerrero came up big for the Indians when he placed first in the 100 (11.52) and won the 200 (23.00).
Burroughs also received first-place efforts from Brennan in the 400 (50.56), Scherer in the 100 hurdles (16.29), Nathan Bradley in the 300 hurdles (40.46) and Nicholas Garduno in the high jump (5-8).
“We knew when we found out that Burbank beat [Arcadia] that we would have a chance against them,” Brennan said. “We had a lot of confidence coming into this meet.”
On the girls’ side, the Indians had only one winner. That victory came in the pole vault, where Sarah Prystupa won with a mark of 8-6. Teammate Bailey Harrison was third in the event (6-0).
Alejandra Moreno had a third-place finish in the 100 (13.33) and placed second in the 200 (27.54), Deanna Fierro was third in the 400 (1:05.60), Eileen Eckles was second in the 1,600 (5:40.20), Jordan Meltzger was third in the high jump (4-8), Isabella Funes placed third in the long jump (15-10), Breanna McCallum was runner-up in the triple jump (30-4 ½) and Ashley Sapone was third in both the shot put (28-4) and the discus (88-1).