Locals take seconds

ARCADIA — There were three compelling local story lines involved with the Pacific League cross-country finals Thursday at Arcadia Park.

Along with whether the Crescenta Valley High girls' team could capture its ninth straight league championship, there was also the question of would Burroughs' Anthony Monroy be able to win an individual boys' title and could the Arcadia boys' team hold off an upstart Burbank squad?

Unfortunately for the area teams and Monroy, the answer on all three counts was no.

In an extremely competitive and tight girls' race that was decided in the final few hundred meters, the Falcons fell short of their bid to capture another title as Arcadia pulled out a 24-31 victory.

In the case of Monroy, he couldn't catch Arcadia's Sergio Gonzalez, placing second in the race. As for the Bulldogs, the Arcadia squad proved just too powerful, outdistancing Burbank, 25-59.

Following the girls' race, tears were shed when Crescenta Valley runners realized that they had lost of the Apaches.

"We knew it was going to be close, and we were just trying to get as many of our runners ahead of them," said Crescenta Valley's Cali King, whose team is ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division I, while Arcadia is ranked No. 8. "We tried to pack really tight, but they had some runners in between us. But we were out there pushing it has hard as we could…I'm really proud of the team."

Arcadia's Veronica Yamane won the three-mile race in 17 minutes 16.66 seconds and was followed by teammate Alejandra Quintero, who came in second in 17:27.38.

King (third, 17:45.41) and teammate Ali Johnson (fourth, 14:49.75) were able to break up Arcadia's top three finishers.

However, Arcadia was able to put all five of its top runners among the top nine, capturing the first, second, fifth, seventh and ninth spots.

"The girls ran a good race; they ran a heck of a race," Falcons Coach Mark Evans said. "I'm proud of the way that that ran. But we just can't let somebody go 1-2 on us and expect to win. That's what we've been working on all season and we still have some work to do in that respect."

The Falcons also received strong performances from Megan Melnyk (sixth, 17:56.94), Erika Johnson (eighth, 18:02.37) and Brooke Moultrie (10th, 18:13.94).

Behind Arcadia and Crescenta Valley was Burbank (99), which was followed by Burroughs (108) and Glendale (132).