Foothill’s Chris Schwartz took home the state title in 8 minutes 51.60 seconds.
Torres, noticeably grinding and gutting out a finish, tallied a time of 9:15.18. It was a mark far removed from the 9:04.85 he ran just over a week prior at the Masters Meet to qualify for state, in which he was seeded seventh.
It was also roughly 13 seconds behind his best time of the year, which he ran at the Arcadia Invitational.
“The entire pace of the entire race was way faster,” said Torres in reference to Saturday’s race compared to the Masters Meet, which was also considered a fast race, with 10 runners qualifying for state. “My body’s just worn out. It was just a matter of how long I could hold on, I held on as long as I could.”
At the onset, Torres, who won the Pacific League title in the 3,200, went stride for stride with league-rival Western Nelson of Burroughs, jockeying between seventh and eighth place. But around the fourth lap, Torres fell out of the top 10.
Around the fifth and sixth laps, with Torres hanging onto 13th, the pack spread out and Torres began to drastically lose ground.
The plan, according to Torres, was to try and keep up with the frontrunners until around the sixth lap, when he would make his move to the front. But the move never came.
“I’m not happy with my performance,” Torres said. “I think Coach [Mark] Evans deserves better than this, but I gave everything I had.
“I really did give it everything.”
Rounding out the trio of Pacific League runners, Arcadia’s Ammar Moussa took 12th in 9:03.26, while Nelson, who was up as high as third in the 32-runner field, finished 16th in 9:06.68.
The race was the culmination of an excellent four years for Torres.
A three-time All-Area Boy’s Cross-Country Runner of the Year, he also turned in consecutive track and field seasons in which he advanced to the Masters Meet, while also grabbing notice playing baseball, as well.
“This feels like a long time,” said Torres of his senior spring season. “That’s why I’m so tired right now.”
Torres is scheduled, on the last weekend of the month, to run in Oregon at the USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships. After that, he’s set to begin his running career at UCLA.
“You want to finish your last race and run a good race,” said Evans, the Falcons track and cross-country coach. “This, obviously, wasn’t a good race for him. But you learn from the bad ones and you eventually let it go.”
