GRIFFITH PARK -- For Burroughs High cross-country Coach John
Peebles and his Burbank counterpart Bob Shaw, they have no
unrealistic expectations when it comes to Foothill League
competition.
Realizing that it would likely take a miracle to defeat juggernaut
Canyon, the local coaches resigned themselves to the fact their teams
will have to play second fiddle to the powerhouse teams.
Wednesday, in Foothill League Meet No. 2 at Griffith Park, the
locals did well, as the Burroughs girls' team and the Burbank boys'
squad came through with second-place finishes.
"We try to do our best in league races," Peebles said. "But during
the race we really don't think about Canyon. It's kind of silly to
think that anyone is going to beat Canyon. No one is even close.
"Our main goal is to do well in league and make it to CIF."
In the girls' varsity race, Burroughs senior Carolyn Brown was
able to break up the Canyon -- ranked fourth in CIF Southern Section
Division I -- pack, finishing third in 19 minutes 49 seconds on the
three-mile course.
Cowgirls' Brenda Cohen (19:21) won the race, and teammate Courtney
Granger (19:26) was second.
If it wasn't for Brown, Canyon would have swept the top six
places, as its runners captured the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and
10th places.
The Indians had four runners break the top 20, with Brenda
McDonald coming in 11th (20:45), Katie Vahoviak was 14th (21:41) and Adriana Powers was 19th (22:06). They were followed by Hillary Duran
(22nd; 22:33), Mary Algiers (26th; 23:15) and Ryanne Hodgins (32nd;
24:15).
Burbank's best finisher was Melissa Edwards, who placed 12th in
21:07. The rest of the Bulldog finishers were Keli Atkins (16th;
21:53), Jennifer Horgan (21st; 22:19), Allison Ivie (23rd; 22:41),
Emily Smith (24th; 22:45), Nicole Elong (29th; 23:36) and Emily Hom
(34th; 24:31).
As a team, Burbank finished fourth behind Hart.
For the Burbank boys' team, Shaw had a plan to light a fire under
some of his athletes he said have not been performing up to their
abilities. The coach moved up two brothers from the
sophomore/freshman team to hopefully push his varsity.
The plan paid off, as freshman Kevin Christoffersen was the teams'
fourth runner, placing 13th in 17:45 and sophomore Ryan
Christoffersen was 21st in 18:16.
Burbank was paced by its consistent leader, Kyle Ivie. The senior
placed third in 15:59, just behind Canyon's Ryan Morgan (first;
15:54) and Troy Wemer (second; 15:54).
The Bulldogs' No. 2 runner Stratos Christianakis also performed
well, finishing fourth in 16:22.
The Cowboys captured fifth, sixth and seventh places.
Preston Richardson was ninth (17:00) for Burbank, Ricky Hernendez
was 18th (18:05) and Ara Abrahamian was 23rd (18:30).
"I thought we ran well today, we ran as a team," Shaw said. "I
hope the success of our soph-frosh runners served as a wake-up call
for some of our other guys.
"We have to be thinking about CIF and I hope that by giving the
young runners some varsity experience, that will pay off for us later
against the best teams in the division."
For Burroughs, Alex Loera was 24th (18:49), Matt Martinez was 32nd
(19:51), Steve Everhart was 37th (20:40) and Sean Ganley was 38th
(22:13).
The Indians finished sixth.
