By Charles Matarese
Special to the Outlook Valley Sun
La Cañada High School’s girls’ track team captured its fourth straight league championship with resounding wins over Monrovia and Blair high schools.
Despite limiting many of its top athletes to one race, the girls’ team won every event against Blair, and was victorious in all but two against Monrovia.
The team was led by Katie McGuinness and Kaitlyn Creighton, who ran legs in the victorious 4×100-meter relay along with Sarina Parks and Lily Bingham. Parks and Bingham also competed in individual events, capturing victories in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, respectively.
La Cañada’s other event champions included Katelyn Matarese in the 200, Maya DeBrouwer in the 800, Kelly Sellman in the 1,600, Kayla Buchok in the shot put, Erin Makhanian in the pole vault, Nora Anderson in the high jump and Danica Eggleston in the triple jump. The team of Naomi Hosford, Charlotte Dien, Yasmin Ghaneh and Charlotte Dien won the 4×400 relay race. Other highlights included Samantha Hosford capturing second in the 200, Naomi Hosford taking second in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles, Parks taking second in the 800, Bingham taking third in both the 100 and 200, and Mia DiConti and Amy Kiang completing the La Cañada sweep in the pole vault with second- and third-place finishes. LCHS also captured first through seventh place in the 800 with strong times from Sellman, Parks, Ghaneh, Brittany Rivas, Tina Lin, and Haloe Ball to back up DeBrouwer’s victory.
The boys’ varsity team also took two victories with a close win against Monrovia and an easier victory against Blair.
The team was led by its senior captains Jaimie Saunders and George Hervey. Saunders took the win in the 400 and a second-place finish in the 200, while Hervey added victories in the 1,600 and 3,200 to go with a third-place finish in the 800. La Cañada swept the 110 hurdles, with Nick Versace, Lorenz Bayug and Ethan Alvarez-Salazar finishing in the top three. The Spartans also swept in the high jump with Alvarez-Salazar, Donald Le and Joseph Whooly finishing in the top three. Eric Sentoso captured the gold in the 300 hurdles and Harvey Wake won the shot put with a throw of 41 feet.
The teams also completed in the San Gabriel Valley Championship on April 13, where Makhanian captured the championship in the pole vault.
The girls team looks to complete its fifth straight undefeated season when it faces off against San Marino on April 19.
The Spartans will then start what expects to be a long and hopefully fruitful postseason that will culminate with the National Championship in June, where the Spartans hope to add to the two National Championships and eight All-American honors they captured last year.
First published in the April 18 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
