Arcadia Invitational: Apaches Take 4th in Boys 4x1,600-meter Relay

Under ideal circumstances, Arcadia senior Ammar Moussa would have had a chance to go toe-to-toe with the nation’s elite in the invitational boys 4x1,600-meter relay at the Arcadia Invitational on Friday night at Arcadia High School.

But Moussa never got that chance as the Apaches were clearly far back from the front pack when he got the baton as his team’s anchor. As a result the Apaches finished fourth in 17 minutes, 37.23 seconds. Arcadia’s “B” team finished 10th in 17:56.76.

“I’m behind three or four of the top milers in the nation. There’s no way I’m going to catch those guys, even if I broke four today,” Moussa said of the people ahead of him. “We came out here and did our best.”

The race was won by Loyola of Los Angeles, which had a solid first leg effort from La Canada-Flintridge resident Philip Kostelnik, who attended Holy Redeemer School in Montrose. The Cubs finished in 17:24.38.

“I believe we had a faster time last year. It is a little cold out there today and some of these boys are struggling to come back from some recent illnesses,” Arcadia coach Chris Schultz said.

Arcadia’s “A” team included Sergio Gonzalez, Ryan Vargas and Eric Garibay. The Apaches’ “B” team featured Allen Leung, Francis Lee, Charles Shen and Esmond Wei.

Arcadia had a another team in the 4x1,600 seeded race that finished 19th in 18:39.43.

The Apaches fared well in the invitational girls 4x800 relay as the team of Miranda Stiver, Glindyll Mancia, Alyson Watkins and Veronica Yamane finished in 9:31.10.

Flintridge Sacred Heart’s 4x800 relay team of Stephanie Vargas, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Amanda Aguilar and Rebecca Armstrong finished eighth in the ‘seeded’ race in 9:52.19 to break a school record.

This comes two days after Vargas, a junior, broke her school’s 800-meter race record in 2:18.96.

“I was training more for the 400 and 200,” Vargas said.

Vargas came away excited that she was part of a team-setting school record on Friday.

“I’m really glad that we broke it by a lot,” she said. “I just came here to run fast. I’m just glad to be here.”

Monrovia’s girls 4x200-meter relay finished second in the ‘rated’ race. The Wildcat team of Jenny Pfau, Skylar Buchanan, Kia Smith and Jasmine Thomas had the ninth fastest time among four races at the same distance.

Arcadia’s girls 4x1,600 relay team finished third in the ‘seeded’ division as the team of Yamane, Alejandra Quintero, Naomi Wilcox and Joyce Liao finished in 21:43.83.

Crescenta Valley’s team of Cali King, Anneke Kakebeen, Brooke Moultrie and Claudia Pham finished fifth in 21:49.55.

Arcadia’s girls 1,600 sprint relay team of Fiona Chu, Krystle Thai, Michelle Fry and Stiver finished second in the ‘seeded’ division with a time of 4:16.59. It was the ninth best time over three race divisions.

The Apache boys 1,600 sprint relay team of Alex McElwee, Taylor Lagace, Gavin Carpenter and Tony Moseley finished fifth in the ‘rated’ race in 3:39.75 and was 13th best over three race divisions.

South Pasadena’s Sean Nang finished eighth in the boys’ triple jump with a best of 43 feet, 5 1-2 inches.

Monrovia junior Michael Harris finished 12th in the long jump with a best of 20 feet, 9 inches.