One final balancing act

While balancing both sports, as he did for four years, obviously took its toll and created a fair share of naysayers, Torres continued to improve season after season.

“It’s hard to do that,” Evans says. “You ideally want to do that, but sometimes kids hit plateaus.

“He was able to get through four years dropping significantly every year. I think that’s a tribute to his hardwork.”

Hardwork and tenacity were hallmarks for Torres’ years as a Crescenta Valley track and field distance runner. His drive to be the best saw him juggle track practice and baseball games, track meets and baseball practices. It began as a freshman and carried on as long as his track and field days would take him.

As a freshman, Evans says Torres could have run away with frosh/soph league titles, but, instead, elected to run the league finals on varsity.

“He was looking ahead to see what it was like to run at the varsity level,” Evans says.

It’s yet another example of Torres pushing himself, a characteristic, along with his ability to focus only on a track, that has many believing his best days are ahead of him when he begins at UCLA in the fall.

“Definitely,” Evans says. “He’ll go in having to focus on one sport.”

Indeed, the mental and physical tax that Torres paid to run and play baseball is a cost he will not have to pay at UCLA.

“Anytime you’re doing two sports like that, it’s stressful,” Evans says. “I think he just got tired at the end.

“Be he kept racing hard. ...He went as far as he could go.”

At the very least, that was the highlight found in Torres’ last race.

He searched and searched for that kick, that resolve, but he just didn’t have it that day. But his tenacity was always there. And, if nothing more, it’s that drive that led him to a senior year filled with highlights and what many believe will be a college career filled with even more.

“I wanted to end my season saying [I] gave [my] everything,” Torres says, “and I really did.”