The fact that the guys were able to win on La Canada’s bone-dry course demonstrated their ability to come out on top whether it is La Cresenta or Lacy or Hahamongna.  It wasn’t supposed to be this way.  The team lost their #1, #2, #3 and #7 runners to graduation and transfers.  Okay, this squad doesn’t yet have the talent that last year’s team had.  But, it is much more of a team.  The senior leadership of John Judge and Girish Balaji are making a big difference in that vibe.  Pack running is also making an impact.  Balaji, Liu, Lew and Perry are all within 20 seconds of each other.  That adds up to a 3-5-8-9-12 finish for the places that count.  On a hot, and exceptionally dusty, course.  We will have some limited video of the race later today.

John Judge crossing the bridge in on the Hahamongna course in third position with less than half a mile to go.  Note the pack of Titans behind him.

The girls’ team has run into a buzz-saw of challenges this year.  The sharpest blade on that buzz-saw has been the competition - namely Scoville, Mispagel and the rest of the La Canada Spartans.  They are simply the elite team in League this year and no-one can touch them.  Injuries have racked the team with Olivia out for most of the year and others nursing chronic problems.  As well as the loss to graduation of #1 and #5.  Without Olivia, the team ran one minute twenty seconds behind last year's team at the first league meet.  With Olivia, they’ll need to lower their team time by nearly 2 minutes to match last year’s team.  The girls have a gap between #2 and #3.  The Spartans place their #3, #4 and #5 runners into that gap.  And, obviously, Scoville and Mispagel give them that strong 1-2 punch.  Angela and Karlin continued to pace each other and they improved by 5 or 10 seconds.  The girls took second with a big assist from SoPas, whose #3 and #4 runners got beat by the course.  The course seemed to take its toll on the back half of our team, as well.

Over in the JV race, we didn’t have enough entries to generate a team.  Sharmayne was our top finisher in 10th place.  Jade had a nice race, finishing in 12th.

Olivia returns from IR.