CV Falls Short Against Arcadia

may still have the No. 1 ranked boys’ cross country team in Division 1 of the CIF Southern Section.

But the Apaches found out Thursday they cannot take any meet lightly.

Burbank High pushed Arcadia to the limit on the three-mile course Griffith Park course in the first Pacific League Meet.

Since the meet is scored as a series of dual meets, the Apaches topped the Bulldogs 27-28. Had it been scored invitational style, which is how the league finals meet will be scored, the Apaches would have lost to the Bulldogs on a tie breaker as Burbank had a faster sixth man.

“The boys realized they let it be closer than it should have been,” Arcadia coach Jim O’Brien said. “The varsity boys did not do the job that they were told to do. They didn’t have the pack like they were supposed to.”

Arcadia did hold out one of its top runners in Francis Lee. This weekend the Apaches are sending two boys’ varsity teams to compete in the Bob Firman Invitational in Idaho.

Sergio Gonzalez led the Apaches by taking second in 15 minutes, 38 seconds. He was followed by Ryan Vargas (fourth, 15:47), Mitchell Pratt (eighth, 16:07), Juan De La Rosa (14th, 16:24), Happy Happy (18th, 16:36) Charlie Shen (27th, 17:00) and Jason Tsugana (30th, 17:11).

finished fourth in the boys’ varsity division.

Michael Duncan (sixth, 15:48), Gabe Collison (11th, 16:20), Aaron Esparza (15th, 16:27), Brandon Baum (22nd, 16:56) and Dylan Devers (27th, 17:07) made up the Falcons’ top five.

Arcadia held off CV 25-30 to win the varsity girls race.

Veronica Yamane won for the Apaches in 18:46. Laura Guidolin was second, also in 18:46. Alejandra Quintero (fifth, 19:20),  Glindyll Mancia (seventh, 19:28) and Joyce Liao (12th, 20:14) round out the top five.

Cali King led the Falcons by taking third in 19:07. Ali Johnson (fourth, 19:14), Megan Melnyk (sixth, 19:25), Hannah Ruby (ninth, 19:57) and Ashley Weitzeman (10th, 19:57) round out the top five.