“For this team it’s been difficult, they’re sort of chasing down a tradition,” said Rebels Coach Ingrid Herskind, whose team, which finished second in state a year ago and third at CIF, has won multiple state championships and has been a top-three team in the division season after season. “I’m proud of them, we’ve still got one more race in our tanks.”
The Rebels were paced by senior Kevin Heintz, who ran to a sixth-place finish in 16 minutes 6 seconds.
“I came out and ran a very good race. It’s not my best race, but it’s certainly an improvement from what I’ve been doing,” Heintz said. “We felt like we came out and put a solid effort in. It wasn’t our best race, but I think we came and certainly did what we needed to do, which was qualify for state.”
The performance comes during a season in which Prep’s stifling run of 17 straight Prep League titles came to an end.
La Cañada’s boys team did well for themselves in the Division III finals, finishing ninth overall and just out of reach for the state qualifiers—the top seven teams moved on to state.
La Cañada’s Aayush Shah once again led the Spartans, finishing in 20th place, finishing in 15 minutes, 49 seconds. His Rio Hondo League rival Sam Pons, of South Pasadena, finished first overall at 14:57.
Jonathan Wu (16:17), Andrew Fisher (16:20) and Adam Skaggs (16:24) finished in 57th, 61st and 66th place.
The overall time for the team, 81:25, might have broken the school record at the Mt. SAC course.
