HomeSchools & YouthJudge Sentences Rio Hondo League Cross-Country Foes to Lesser Place

Judge Sentences Rio Hondo League Cross-Country Foes to Lesser Place

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by Mitch Lehman

It’s an individual sport played out in a team format and the San Marino boys’ varsity cross country team did a heckuva lot better than America’s Ryder Cup squad as the Titans used their all-around acumen to win the first Rio Hondo League meet of the season last Thursday afternoon at Lacy Park.

John Judge finished second overall in a time of 16:41 followed by Girish Balaji at (5th, 17:11) and Tomas Liu, who dropped another six seconds off his Lacy Park personal record to place 6th in a time of 17:12.

Sophomore Eric Lew dropped 34 seconds off his PR to come in 9th with a time of 17:27 and Charlie Perry was close behind in 10th place with a 17:31 – 16 seconds faster than his previous-best Lacy loop.

Following the golf analogy, cross country meets are scored in a similar manner where the lowest score wins. The places of each school’s top five finishers are added together for a total team score – the actual times are irrelevant.

Justin Castleman’s 18:18 was over a minute faster than his time at the Phil Ryan Invitational and Cav Jue also improved with a 19:07.

With less than a minute separating the top five scoring runners, the team time of 1:26:02 was down two minutes compared to the 1:28:09 result at the Ryan, just two weeks prior.

With several runners out due to illness and injury, the Lady Titan varsity entered the competition already facing a stiff challenge. But senior captain Sarah Linton battled from wire-to-wire, navigating the park in a personal best of 19:35 – twenty seconds better than her previous low – to finish second overall.

Carlin Koch’s 9th place time of 20:57 was a 16-second improvement over her Ryan Invitational clocking and Angela Wang was close behind in 10th with a PR time of 20:57 – 18 seconds better than her previous best.

Rounding out the 5 scoring runners were Kelly McCrary and Sharmayne Siu, who came through together in a time of 22:41 for 18th and 19th place  and almost 30 seconds better than their Ryan times. The Lady Titans’ 3rd place team score of 56 points means they must win at League Meet #2 and the Rio Hondo League finals to repeat their 2013 team championship.

In girls’ junior varsity action, Cara Roberts improved by more than two minutes from the Ryan with a time of 22:31, good enough for fifth.

In boys’ junior varsity competition, Alex Lai was the top Titan finisher in a time of 19:51, earning him eleventh place. The Titans did not have enough scoring runners to post a team tally in either jayvee race.

Personal bests were in abundance at the boy’s frosh-soph level as Grant Holt (8th place, 20:00) chopped almost a minute off his Ryan time; Kyle McCall (10th, 20:05) dropped his previous Lacy PR by over a minute; freshman Tom Moffat (16th, 20:20) shaved forty seconds off his previous PR; Ethan Deshaies continued to improve with a season’s best of 20:36, good for twentieth and Jonathan Chen dropped over a minute with a 20:41 PR as the Titans placed 3rd as a team with a score of 73.

San Marino is back on the path this Saturday, October 4 when they compete in the Kenny Staub Invitational at Crescenta Valley Park. First gun is 8:15 a.m.

The second Rio Hondo League Meet will be held on Thursday, October 16 at Hahamongna Park beginning at 3:15 p.m.

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