Arcadia still tops in league

For the rest of the boys' and girls' cross-country teams in the Pacific League, the 2010 season has been spent chasing down Arcadia.

Neither Burroughs nor Burbank was able to make much progress in that regard in the second league meet of the year at Arcadia Park on Wednesday afternoon, although the Indians' Anthony Monroy and the Bulldogs' McKenzie Paul provided some individual highlights with third- and fourth-place finishes, respectively.

Arcadia, which also won the first league meet on Sept. 23 at Grifffith Park, won easily on both sides Wednesday to clinch at least a share of the league title, although with the league final counting double there’s still an opportunity for another team to force a co-championship.

"[Arcadia’s] a really good team to compete with," said Monroy, who finished in 14 minutes 42.12 seconds behind defending-champion Arcadia's Amar Moussa (14:40.31) and Sergio Gonzalez (14:40.91).

And, in the enduring intracity rivalry, it was Burroughs coming out on top overall, taking second on the boys’ side to Burbank’s third and third in girls' competition, where Burbank was fourth.

"We just tried to stay relaxed in that first mile and not go out too fast so we can finish the last two miles stronger," Monroy said. "The weather was a little bit warm today. If you get too excited you won't be able to finish."

Sergio Fraire was the top overall finisher for Burbank in ninth place in 15:26.94.

Alex Quispe (13th; 15:53.72), Charlie Camacho (14th; 15:57.72) and Kamal Chahal (15th; 15:58.06) rounded out the Indians' scoring five along with Kyle Freudenberg (18th; 16:11.88).

"We're just training a lot harder," Monroy said. "We' re constantly trying to improve every single day."

Burbank's Jacob Jun (15:58.78) and Andrew Wernstrum (16:05.88) finished 16th and 17th and Zach Solomon (16:16.91) and Isaiah Amos-Nshhimba (16:18.44) were 20th and 21st for the Bulldogs.

Crescenta Valley' s boys' team finished fourth, led by an eighth-place finish from Mike Duncan in 15:17.72.

The gap between the defending-champion Falcons and the Apaches girls widened a little bit more at Arcadia Park on Wednesday afternoon Arcadia beat out Crescenta Valley, 22-34.