Indians prove they are the best

Burroughs, Burbank and Bellarmine-Jefferson all run their home

cross-country meets at Griffith Park.

While the Indians and Bulldogs compete on a course near the

landmark merry-go-round, the Guards’ home layout is on the other side

of the park near the Greek Theatre.

Although Thursday’s 15th installment of the Burbank All-City Meet

was held on Bell-Jeff’s home course, Burroughs made itself right at

home by sweeping the team and individual competitions at the event.

“It’s nice to have two separate courses in Griffith Park,” said

Bell-Jeff Coach Jim Couch, whose team’s layout is 2.9 miles.

“While the course Burbank and Burroughs runs on is a little longer

and has bigger hills and a lot more grassy area that slows down the

runners, their course is a little slower.

“Since our course is a little shorter, naturally, it’s a bit

faster. But I really like both courses. We have used their course in

the past when we couldn’t use ours.”

In the team standings, the Burroughs teams swept for the second

straight year. The boys were triumphant in the invitational-style

scoring with 24 points, followed by the Bulldogs with 31 and the

Guards with 85. The Indian girls won with 29 points, Burbank was

second with 36 and Bell-Jeff had 60.

Since last year’s boys’ and girls’ individual champions have

graduated, the field for this year’s meet was wide open.

The girls’ race was won by Indian sophomore Sadee Martinez, who

finished in 19 minutes 9 seconds.

“I really didn’t feel that good today. My legs were really heavy,”

Martinez said.

“It’s awesome to win the race, but I have a lot more work to do,

and I have to improve a lot this season.”

Burroughs teammate Michelle Martinez placed second in 19:21 and

Burbank’s Michelle Horgan was third in 19:36.

The Indians were able to get all their five scoring runners among

the top 11 finishers, as Lilyana Morejon was sixth in 20:17, Brenda

Santana was ninth in 20:27 and Kerry Hodgins was 11th in 21:26.

Burbank’s Natasha Christoffersen was fourth in 19:51.

The top Guard finisher was Amber Herkey, who placed fifth in

19:57. Teammate Gaby Gonzalez was eighth in 20:21.

In the boys’ race, senior Morgan Walker navigated the hilly course

to win in a time of 15:38.

“As a team, we came into this race [Thursday] looking to win it,”

Walker said. “And I think we showed what we could do by winning it as

a team.”

It looked as if it would be a Burroughs 1-2 finish, as Indian

senior Adrian Harrison was running behind Walker toward the end of

the race. However, Burbank sophomore Aksel Kirakosyan made a move

with about 200 yards from the finish.

The Bulldog passed Harrison to place second in 15:45. Harrison was

third in 15:48.

The Indians received a fourth-place finish from Alex Sandoval in

15:55, teammate James Larson was seventh in 16:08 and Vernon Roque

was ninth in 16:26.

Although Burroughs might get the best of cross-town rival Burbank

this season, the Bulldogs could be strong in the coming years. In

Thursday’s race, four of Burbank’s top five finishers -- placing

second, fifth, eighth and 10th -- were all sophomores, and the fifth

is a junior.

The top Bell-Jeff finisher was Josh Lepe, who finished in 15th

place in 18:36.

Providence, which traditionally competes in the meet, did not run

this season because the Pioneers had a Liberty League meet scheduled

at the same time.