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Rio Hondo competition for 2016 kicked off at Lacy Park on a perfect fall day for running. In the first race of the afternoon, South Pasadena dominated the JV Boys race with a perfect 15 point score and eight runners in the top 10. Jonathan Chen was the first Titan through the finish with a time of 18:52, good for 13th place. The Titans had only four runners in the race and so did not have a team score.
The JV Girls ran next, and freshman Katie Wong cracked the top 10, with a 7th place finish in 22:55. South Pas again won the team competition and the Titans did not have a team score, having only three runners in the race.
The Varsity Boys toed the start line next, with senior Eric Lew grabbing 4th place in a time of 16:13. The remaining scoring runners were Sean Chen (19th, 17:41), Tom Moffat (20th, 17:43), Tim Wong (22nd, 17:49), and Alex Powers (24th, 17:54). The Titans placed 4th in the team competition, tying with 3rd place Temple City with 89 points but dropping to 4th based on the placing of the 6th runner. The Titan’s 2nd-5th men showed nice packing but the pack will need to close the approximate 90 second gap with Eric if the team hopes to make CIF. Xavier did not run, but neither did Temple City’s Alex Ortega, so the battle for the third CIF slot will be close.
Next up were the Varsity Girls and the young Titan ladies almost took 2nd place as a team with 67 points to South Pasadena’s 66. Sophomore Olivia Ruiz took 2nd place in a dramatic sprint to the finish, crossing in 19:00 (the top 3 finishers were separated by 4 seconds). Freshman standout Purvaja Balaji just missed the top 10, plaing 11th in 20:23. The remaining scoring runners were Meg Hannan (15th, 20:30), Juliana Judge (16th, 20:32), and Evelyn Tran (23rd, 21:38). As we’ve said before, with a small squad each runner will be counted on to contribute if the Lady Titans are to succeed.
Finishing out the meet were the Frosh-Soph Boys -- and both Josh Rose (6th, 18:12) and Joseph Weber (7th, 18:16) placed in the top 10. The remaining scoring runners were freshman Kai Barra (33rd, 20:06), Soph Ben Tang (36th, 20:13) and frosh David Castellanos (37th, 20:16). Close behind was Trevor Leon (38th, 20:17). The Frosh-Soph guys placed 4th in the team competition with 78 points, but were within striking distance to both Temple City and La Canada, each of which had 70 points. The 3rd-6th runnners were within 11 seconds of one another, so if this pack can move closer to Josh and Joseph they’ll have a shot at a top 3 team finish.
Titan and complete results are provided below.
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