Leana Setian, CV boys pick up wins at Mt. SAC
WALNUT — A day after Flintridge Prep delivered the area’s lone victory at the 65th annual Mt. San Antonio College Cross-Country Invitational, two more locals pushed their way into the winner’s circle on Saturday’s second and final day.
Glendale High’s Lena Setian won an individual race and the Crescenta Valley High boys’ captured a team title on an afternoon in which both Burbank and Burroughs also celebrated.
“This is so unbelievable, I never expected it,” said Setian, who captured the Division I green race in an unofficial time of 18 minutes 05 seconds. “I always dreamed of winning here at Mt. SAC because it’s the toughest course, but I just can’t believe it.”
Setian took her lead at the 1 1/2-mile midway point and was seen cruising on Mt. SAC’s jumbo Mountievision screen, racing out to a 10-second lead.
Setian never relinquished the lead en route to the win.
“I knew I was ahead about a mile in and just kept on pushing,” she said. “I just kept going.”
Glendale took 11th overall with 281 points as teammate Fabby Naranjo was next in line in taking 62nd.
As for the Crescenta Valley boys, they pulled out an impressive win in the Division I blue race, defeating El Rancho, 91-109, buoyed by Gabe Collison.
The Falcons junior finished second to Stockdale’s Connor Fisher in ending in an unofficial time of 15:13.
“I was flipping through the record book with some of the guys and trying to find what it would take to get into the record book as a junior,” Collison said. “I think I needed like a 15:03, so even though I didn’t make it, we still did pretty good as a team.”
Behind Collison were teammates Aaron Esparza (10th) and Nick Beatty (17th) with unofficial times of 15:44 and 15:56, respectively.
Not far off the pace of the Falcons was Pacific League rival Burbank, which finished fourth with 122 points and was looking for revenge after a 27-28 defeat to Crescenta Valley at Monday’s second Pacific League meet at Arcadia County Park.
“We had a tough one-point loss at Arcadia, so the guys really wanted to see if we could get them today,” Burbank Coach Trevor Marca said. “We got really close.”
In one-on-one scoring, the Falcons defeated the Bulldogs, 26-29, even though Burbank’s top three runners finished ahead of the Falcons’ top trio.
Burbank’s Arsen Mkrtchyan was fourth, while Bernie Corea took eighth and Elliot Choe was 12th in unofficial times of 15:33, 15:41 and 15:49, respectively.
While the Indians did not officially field a scoring squad in the Division I girls’ varsity yellow race, that didn’t stop Gracia Innocentia from turning in a banner effort in taking the silver.
“It was nice and cool today, so that helped,” Innocentia said. “I was just hoping to run a good race.”
The Crescenta Valley girls also earned a second-place team finish in the Division I green race, finishing with 110 points and trailing only Vista Murrieta (81 points).
“We ran in the late afternoon, so there was no sun. That helped,” said Crescenta Valley’s Erika Johnson, who finished fifth with an unofficial mark of 18:25.5.
Johnson was barely nipped by teammate Megan Melnyk, who was fourth in an unofficial time of 18:25.1.
In other events, Luis Celaya (fifth) led the Indians to eighth in the boys’ Division I red race, Brian Shieh (18th) paced the Nitros to eighth in the boys’ Division I green race and Arlette Movsesyan (35th) guided the Bulldogs to 13th in the girls’ Division I yellow race.
No official times were released Saturday because of a timing software glitch.
Not to be forgotten was the effort of the Hoover boys, who ran in the Division III sweepstakes Friday afternoon.
The Tornadoes finished 16th, paced by senior Jeremy Zadoorian, who was 14th in an official mark of 15:47.
Teammate Kenneth Trejo (22nd, 15:55) wasn’t far off the pace.