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Rio Hondo League Cross Country Finals were held on a warm day at Lacy Park. As it has all season, South Pasadena dominated, with Tiger teams and individuals winning 4 of 5 of the races. La Canada’s varsity girls kept it from being a sweep by winning their race. The boys and girls teams from South Pasadena will represent Rio Hondo in D3, and La Canada and San Marino’s teams will race in the boys and girls D4 races at CIF Prelims.
The JV Boys were off first, with South Pasadena’s Jay Ebata taking it out from the start. Coming into the final stretch, the Tiger trio of Ebata, Colin Schwatner and Miles Mendoza were battling it out. In the end, Schwatner edged his teammates for the win, followed by Mendoza and Ebata. Grant Holt of San Marino placed 4th, and South Pasadena’s Alexander Gallardo came in 5th. The Tigers, with 20 points, had all five scorers in the top 10, and second place La Canada, with 49 points, had three.
Next up were the JV Girls, and South Pasadena girls matched the guys performance with 20 points and all five scorers in the top 10 for the win. Lady Tiger Maylis Whetsel won the race by more than a minute over teammates Amber Pacheco and Caroline Liebe. Temple City’s Joy Hsu came in 4th (leading the Rams to a second place team score of 43 points), followed by Sydney Bond of La Canada.
In the Varsity Boys race, Kieran Press-Reynolds of South Pasadena followed his prior League meet wins with a 22 second victory for the league title. Teammate Oliver Chang was second, 45 seconds ahead of fellow Tiger Jayhyung Choi in third. La Canada’s Ryan Van Slooten and San Marino’s Eric Lew were 4th and 5th, respectively. The Tiger varsity guys kept pace with both JV teams by scoring 20 points for the win, but were even more impressive by placing all seven runners in the top 10 -- WOW.
In the Varsity Girls race, the individual competition again came down to La Canada’s Adena Dipaolo and San Marino’s Olivia Ruiz. Each had won a league meet over the other by a second, and that was again the margin of victory at Finals -- this time the win going to Dipaolo. La Canada’s Sarah Arthur was third, San Marino’s Purvaja Balaji fourth, and Lady Spartan Madison Pirkey was fifth. La Canada won with 27 points, placing four runners in the top 10, and South Pas and San Marino tied with 60 points (with the tie-breaker going to South Pas based on their 6th runner).
In the Frosh-Soph Boys race, Tiger Sam Clark won his third league meet of the season and led South Pas to a dominating 16 point team score (amazingly, the Tigers had eight of the top ten spots). South Pas’ Kai Dettman, Nicolo Porcu, and Michael Xiong came in second through fourth, and San Marino’s Josh Rose broke up the sweep by placing fifth.
Top finisher, team scores, complete race results, and links to race videos are below.
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