By Maya Williamson
Staff Writer
Photos by Hana Tyszka
Senior Staff Photographer
Cross Country competed spectacularly in their first Rio Hondo League race of the year at Lacy Park on Thursday, September 22. The grassy and sloping terrain at Lacy Park lead to slightly slower times, but the South Pas team still performed exceptionally well with all teams winning first place except girls’ varsity, who earned second.
All the boys’ teams ran fantastically yesterday, both varsity and non-varsity beating out their rivals La Cañada and San Marino for first place. In Varsity, senior Kieran Press-Reynolds and junior Oliver Chang lead the team, placing first and second individually with respective times of 15:39:0 and 16:09:0. Coming in at sixth and seventh place were Jaehyung Choi (16:31:2) and Ben Clark (16:39:9). They were followed not far behind by rising sophomore Alekzander Grijalva (9, 16:42.8), Senior Robert Steele (10, 16:50.6) and junior David Seo (11, 16.51.3) finished off the South Pas squad.
“This year’s team is the culmination of four years of hard work. We were fantastic last season and we have almost every varsity guy back this year” Press-Reynolds said “I have high hopes that we will be able to extend our season deep into the CIF realm.”
Boys’ junior varsity completely dominated the competition with eight of the top nine places being held by South Pasadena runners. They completed the race with an average team time of 17:57.42, a full minute faster that the runner up, La Cañada’s time of 18:57.54. The frosh/soph boys’ team also competed.They defeated competition for first place by an impressive margin of 52 points.
On the girls’ teams, Varsity was lead by junior Maddy Engelsman who placed fifth out of 38 with a time of 19:22.7. Sophomores Elizabeth Bock and Lindsey Calva placed tenth (20:09.9) and thirteenth (20:29.8). In the final three scoring positions for South Pasadena were sophomore Sarah Uriarte (17, 20:34.3), junior Caroline Liu (21, 21:29.4), and senior Katherine Conte (24, 21:42.2). They ended with an average time of 20:25.22, coming in second to La Cañada.
“I’m so proud of how our whole team did, despite having to rebuild after the loss of many valuable senior varsity runners,” said Engelsman.
Girls’ junior varsity also did very well at Lacy Park, taking home first with an average time of 22:33.82.
Non-Varsity teams are set to compete on Saturday, September 24 at Dana Hills. The next Varsity meet will be the Clovis Invitational on Saturday, October 8.
