"They're just a very good team, there's no question about it," said Falcons Coach Mark Evans, whose girls' squad took first over the weekend in the Clovis Invatational's interdivisional race and is currently ranked third in CIF Southern Section Division I. "We should be able to come in and do what we did today. For us to be where we want to be down the road, we have to be able to do that."
On the boys' side, Evans' squad took second, finishing behind defending league champion Arcadia, the fifth-ranked boys' team in Division I. Burroughs and Burbank took third and fourth, respectively, with Glendale finishing fifth and Hoover seventh.
"We kinda knew it wasn't going to be easy making CIF this year," said Glendale Coach Bob Bailey, whose team is being effected most by the additions of Burbank and Burroughs into league.
In the girls' race, Burbank took second, Burroughs took third and Glendale and Hoover finished fifth and sixth, respectively, behind a fourth-place Arcadia. The top four teams will advance to the CIF prelims at the end of league competition.
For the Falcons, league isn't all that's on their minds — boys or girls.
"I'm just upset because I had a pretty good race on Saturday and I let those guys beat me," said Falcons sophomore Zack Torres, who finished 24th overall in 15:51 at Clovis on Saturday, but finished fourth in 15:52 on Thursday. "I feel like I'm not doing my job as a runner on the team. If I run like this, we're not gonna get to state."
At the halfway point of the race, Torres was in third, surrounded by a tribe of Apaches, who would finish their top five inside the first 10. At the end, Arcadia's Andrew Pilavjian (15:36) and Renaud Poizat (15:42) were first and second, respectively, but Burroughs sophomore Western Nelson was a surprise third-place finisher.
