Burroughs’ Virtue, Crescenta Valley’s FitzGerald lead way at Pacific League cross-country finals

La Crescenta — In phenomenally dominant fashion, Burroughs High’s Emily Virtue ran to her second consecutive Pacific League title, while the Arcadia girls’ squad was just as impressive in capturing the team crown.

But the boys’ race at the Pacific League finals on Thursday at Crescenta Valley Park was very much a nailbiter to the finish line and the final computer printouts.

Crescenta Valley’s Colin FitzGerald turned to an excellent kick late to stride past Burroughs’ Alexander Hirsh, while Hirsh’s Indians and Arcadia ran to a 44-point deadlock broken by the Apaches’ sixth-place runner, thereby bringing about a shared league championship for the teams on Thursday afternoon.

As close as the boys’ race proved to be, Virtue, a junior, settled for no such histrionics as she won her sixth league race in a row, clocking in at 18 minutes 18.88 seconds, more than 45 seconds in front of her nearest challenger.

“I remember somebody saying that [I had won my last five league races], because I was like, ‘That’s a lot of pressure,’ but it was OK,” said Virtue, the reigning All-Area Girls’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year. “I think more of the state scale, where I’m at at the state level.

“I felt like I was able to push pretty hard.”

While winning league titles and races is old hat for Virtue, FitzGerald claimed his first league championship, while Burroughs claimed a share of its third straight title.

FitzGerald was shoulder to shoulder with Hirsh for much of the race. Down the final stretch, Hirsh had a couple of steps, but when the two hit the park’s bridge, Fitzgerald found another gear and sprinted across the finish line in 15:33.03, with Hirsh following at 15:34.69.

“This was my goal coming into the season. I’m so glad,” said FitzGerald, a junior, who became the first Falcons to win a league individual title since Zack Torres in 2008. “I really wanted to get this just for my team and everybody that’s supported me so much.

“Pretty much at the bridge [is where I was able to go ahead]. I just gave it everything.”

Said Hirsh, a junior: “I wasn’t sure how it was going to go coming into the race. … Especially Colin’s kick, I wasn’t expecting that.”

Hirsh was followed by teammates Timothy Wells (fifth, 15:54.41), Jagdeep Chahal (seventh, 16:00.69), Jacob Calderon (13th, 16:20.72) and Daniel Fendrich (17th, 16:28.00).

Arcadia’s scoring five took the third, fourth, sixth, 15th and 16th spots. Thus, the teams tied with 44 points, but the Apaches won the tiebreaker by virtue of their sixth runner finishing 18th to Burroughs’ No. 6 coming in at 22nd.

While Burroughs won the first two league races of the season, the league finals are worth double, so the teams shared the league title.

“We were hoping to win it outright, but hopefully this shows the guys next week [at CIF Southern Section preliminaries] and the weeks ahead that they have to make sure they’re really ready to run,” Burroughs Coach John Peebles said. “But, Arcadia’s a good team. It’s not like they came out of nowhere.”

Crescenta Valley’s boys’ team took third with 49 points and Burbank was fourth with 104. Rounding out the field were Pasadena (148), Glendale (172) and Hoover (191).

On the girls’ side, it was all Arcadia at the top with 23 points, followed by Burbank with 53 points, then Crescenta Valley tying Burroughs with 84 points, but the Falcons owning a better sixth-place finish.

Thereafter, Glendale was sixth (152), just ahead of Hoover (153). Pasadena started a full five-girl team, but did not finish.

Arcadia’s Holly Lung took second in 19:05.18, as the Apaches placed their scoring five in the top-nine slots and all seven of their runners in the top 12.

However, as has been her goal for much of the year, Burbank’s Gabby Collins was able to break up the Arcadia pack and she was joined by fellow senior Kira Bochard, as the Bulldogs took fifth and seventh, respectively.

“I’m really happy with what I did today,” said Collins, whose time of 19:15.15 was a personal record on the course. “I was extremely happy not only with what I was able to do with Arcadia, but our No. 2 runner was also up there, so I was extremely happy with that.”

It was a bit of a bittersweet race for Collins, though, as she will miss the CIF prelims as she has to attend an out-of-state wedding. So, she’s hoping her teammates will be able to move on to the CIF finals with her absent.

On Thursday, the rest of the scoring five for the Bulldogs were Sol Fernandez (10th, 19:49.09), Noemi Apreza (13th, 20:27.66) and Jamie Giammichele (18th, 20:59.25). Bochard’s seventh-place finish came in 19:19.81.

Leading third-place Crescenta Valley was Naila Ortiz, who took 14th in 20:36.56 to begin a parade of Falcons that finished 14th through 17th, with Melissa Owens (15th, 20:46.31), Sophia Atin (16th, 20:56.28) and Sojeong Kang (17th, 20:57.28) following.

After Virtue, Burroughs’ next runner across the line was Heidi Eligio in 11th at 20:24.66, but Sapphire Sandoval (19th, 21:07.09) was the only other Indian to finish inside the top 25.

Hoover’s top runner was 21st-place Gabriela Quinones (21:17.00), while Glendale’s Vanneza Venzor (24th, 21:55.41) led her team.

Following FitzGerald, the third-place Crescenta Valley boys saw Manan Vats take eighth in 16:07.22 and he was joined in the scoring five by Artin Allahverdian (ninth, 16:08.28), Zach Johnson (11th, 16:11.00) and Spencer Geck (20th, 16:43.56).

Fourth-place Burbank’s top-25 finishers were Elijah Parrott (10th, 16:08.75), Angel Flores (14th, 16:21.12) and Jahir Olvera (25th, 17:33.38).

Hoover was led by Omar Abdelrahim (29th, 17:58.09) and Glendale’s top runner was Albert Hernandez (32nd, 18:48.28).