First published in the Oct. 28 print issue of the San Marino Tribune.
The San Marino High School boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams visited Pasadena’s Hahamongna Park to take part in the Rio Hondo League’s second joint meet of the season and came away with with results that were similar to the first.
That one was held in the friendly confines and flat contours of Lacy Park while this required competitors to tackle the relatively mountainous terrain in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The SMHS boys’ varsity squad finished in third place behind winners South Pasadena and runner-up La Cañada yet comfortably ahead of Temple City and Monrovia, which finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
It was a cavalcade of juniors for the Titans as Thai Villaluna (seventh place in a time of 16:49) paced San Marino over the hilly three-mile course. Classmates Neil Chen (eighth, 16:53), Benjamin Hughes (ninth, 16:54) and Ryan Toh (18th, 17:39) followed Villaluna to the finish line. Seniors Gavin O’Malley (19th, 17:41) and Ethan Foong (27th, 19:39) rounded out the scoring for the Titans, who scored 61 points. In high school cross country, each team sends six runners to the starting line. The final placings of the five fastest runners are added together to compute an aggregate final score. South Pasadena finished with 37, La Cañada carded a 45 while Temple City and Monrovia finished with 77 and 148, respectively.
San Marino’s young and inexperienced girls’ varsity squad finished in fourth place but head coach Angus Leung was pleased with the team’s proximity to Temple City, which finished just four points ahead of the Lady Titans.
Senior Anya Tang led San Marino, finishing in eighth place in a time of 18:09. Freshman Kayla Giddings was just a slot behind, finishing ninth with a time of 19:04. Freshman Eve Rios (22nd, 22:37), sophomore Sasha Redshaw (24th, 23:53) and juniors Megan Linden and Alyson Garcia (28th and 29th, respectively) rounded out the roster for San Marino.
In the boys’ junior varsity race, junior Christopher Jang finished fourth with a clocking of 18:52 with classmate Chase Nielsen crossing the finish line 11th in 19:32. Jack Ye (14th) and Michael Yuratich (16th) also ran for the Titans.
San Marino also shined in the boys’ frosh-soph competition, with freshman Essien Gagnon recording a winning time of 18:15 to lead the Titans to a second-place finish. Sophomore Taylor Tan (second place, 18:35), freshman Daniel Wong (10th, 20:01), sophomore Harrison Walker (13th, 20:42) and freshmen Sam Zia (14th, 20:56), Jack Leizman (15th, 20:56) and Howard Chen (16th, 20:56) rounded out the lineup for the runners-up.
“Essien ran extremely well,” said Leung. “He greatly improved his time from the first league meet. Last time he finished second and this time he won. That was so impressive.”
Lacy Park will be the site of the third and final Rio Hondo League meet when each of San Marino’s four squads toe the starting line on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 1:30 p.m.
“We have shown some major improvement in our times,” said Leung. “I am hoping we can move up a few places at the final league meet.”
