Cross country dominates in its first league showdown of the season

Written by Alina Mehdi
Staff Photographer 

Photos by Helena Fu 
Staff Photographer 

The South Pasadena cross country team nearly swept their first league meet of the season on Thursday, September 21. The varsity boys’ and girls’ teams performed exceptionally, placing first and second overall, respectively. The Lacy Park meet also went well individually with the majority of South Pas runners staying within the top half of their respective races. La Cañada, San Marino, Monrovia, Temple City, and Blair competed alongside the Tigers in the meet.

Oliver Chang lead the pack in his second mile.

Taking first place by two minutes, the varsity boys concluded the meet with a time of 1:23:22.50 and average individual time of 16:40. Senior Oliver Chang finished first of all forty varsity boys in the race, running a 16:13. Coming in fourth and fifth in the race were junior Kai Dettman and sophomore Sam Clark with times of 16:31.74 and 16:36.39. Senior Alex Gallardo and junior Michael Xiong came in ninth and tenth place, each running 16:58.61 and 17:02.76, respectively. Junior Nicolo Porcu had a 17:13.29 and senior Ben Clark attained a 17:38.46, closing out the male South Pas runners.

The boys performed exceptionally well, with all of the South Pas runners placing in the top half of forty runners. The talent and skill displayed in this race is likely to carry throughout the season, indicating possible future success.  

Nicolo Porcu runs the downhill section of his 3rd mile.

The varsity girls also displayed great talent in their race, despite not acquiring first place. The team concluded its race with an overall time of 1:43:18.91, landing it in second place behind La Cañada. Senior Maddy Engelsman led the Tigers with a 20:16.44, placing her as 12th among all varsity girls. Following right behind was senior Bailey Wu with a time of 20:29.14. Next were junior Lindsey Calva, senior Celeste Amaya, and sophomore Amber Pacheco each running 20:43.07, 20:52.87, and 20:57.39, respectively. Juniors Sarah Uriarte and Maylis Whetsel closed out the Tigers female runners with times of 21:05.02 and 21:52.37, respectively.

“The course is pretty challenging, so the varsity girls went into it a bit unsure. But everybody ran really well. We’re hoping we stay on an upward trend and continue to do well for the rest of the season” said Wu.

South Pas will run its second league meet at Crescenta Valley Park on Wednesday, October 11.

 

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