Spartans, Tologs turn in big days

At the 42nd running of the annual Barnes/Staub Invitational cross-country meet on Saturday at Crescenta Valley Park, for two of the top girls’ programs in the area the day served to reaffirm their positions as hopeful division powerhouses.

Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy brought home victory in the Division 3 race, led by Stephanie Vargas’ second-place finish.

Meanwhile, the La Cañada boys’ and girls’ squad both finished in second in the Division 2 races, with Aayush Shah taking first place in the boys (16 minutes, 24.82 seconds) and Meghan Fuelling (19:41.33) and Holly Shreckengast (19:54.82) finishing third and fourth for the girls.

“Co-captain Holly was dealing with a bad cold at Staub and based on her training, would have been right at the 19-minute barrier on that course,” said Spartans Coach Andy DiConti. “Meghan really took the race into her hands on Saturday and when she gains more confidence in her ability, will truly excel into one of the top girls in division 3 CIF.

“The same could also be said for Holly.”

The Spartans boys’ team, anchored by Shah’s victory, performed well as a team as no runner finished below 27th place.

“They did well,” said Spartans Coach Mike Thatcher by email. “We’ve got the beginnings of some real depth on the boys side. A 59 second spread was good to see, especially with Shah running so well, but our chase back (4-7 runners) still need to narrow the gap by a good 15-20 seconds for us to reach our team potential.”

Spartan Adam Skaggs was second-best on the day for La Cañada with an eighth place finish (17:01.69). Jon Wu was behind him in 14th (17:19.40).

La Cañada (58 points) was edged by Granite Hills in the invitational, who took the win with 40 points.

In the Staub/Barnes Invitational, similar to golf, points accrued are bad.

For the girls’, the performances of sophomore Fuelling and junior Shreckengast came up big as the Spartans finished with 75 points on the day, three shy of leader Golden Valley.

Freshman Sonja Cwik came in 11th for the Spartans with 20:31.00.

Venice’s Jacklyn Walles took first place overall in the Division 2 race with 19:17.57. Amy Weissenbach of Harvard-Westlake was second at (19:35.06)

Despite being without reigning Division IV All-State runner Andrea Kropp, the Tologs got back on track.