Falcons girls simply can’t be caught at Clovis

GLENDALE — No one could catch the Crescenta Valley High girls’ cross-country team at the 2009 Clovis Invitational at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday, including, for the second week in a row, Pacific League rival Arcadia.

Behind a strong pack led by junior Claudia Pham, who finished sixth overall in 18 minutes 52 seconds, the Falcons had the top score of 119 (1:37:34) in the Division I Varsity race, edging out host Clovis (149), Huntington Beach Edison (162) and the Apaches (165), who had the top overall finisher in Catrina McAlister (17:46).

After Arcadia handed the reigning league-champion Falcons their first loss in 14 straight league meets on Sept. 23, Crescenta Valley came back to finish second, one spot ahead of the Apaches, at the 42nd Annual Barnes/Staub Invitational on Oct. 3. On Thursday, the Falcons will have a chance to avenge their league loss when they take part in the second league meet of the season.

“That’s two times in a row we’ve beaten them and next Thursday’s the important one that counts so we want to come back and do that again,” Crescenta Valley Coach Mark Evans said. “But I think we definitely have confidence we can do that.”

Sophomore Brooke Moultrie finished 10th for the Falcons in 19:11 and sophomore Ali Johnson was Crescenta Valley’s third runner, finishing 27th in 19:42.

The Falcons’ pack was rounded out by freshman Cali King in 32nd in 19:48, junior Anneke Kakebeen in 44th in 20:01 and senior Eliza Collison in 55th in 20:17.

Pham and Moultrie both dropped time from their 2008 runs on the same course, with Pham shaving off 24 seconds and Moultrie dropping a whopping 2:25.

The Falcons boys placed 15th in the Division I Varsity race with a score of 400 (1:25:10), led by junior Bob Anderson (21st, 16:20) and sophomore Josh Carlos (57th, 16:50).

Junior Corey Williams was 85th in 17:04, Aaron Esparza placed 116th in 17:23 and sophomore Dylan Devins was 127th in 17:33.

“We just wanted to get on the course and run it,” Evans said. “The boys ran a good solid race, it was a tough race for us. It was a varsity race and we had mostly sophomores and juniors in there and they had a very good solid effort.”

Flintridge Prep’s boys’ team amassed 345 points to place 13th in the Division IV Varsity race. Junior Jason Bunn led the Rebels’ pack with a 43rd-place finish in 17:23, followed by junior Jesse Redding (52nd, 17:31), sophomore Jake Johnson (80th, 18:00), sophomore Omar Martin (103rd, 18:20) and junior Taylor Beith (113th, 18:23