Mission accomplished for BHS cross country at DSL Finals

Friday

Nov 8, 2013 at 2:56 PM

VICTORVILLE — In its final season in the Desert Sky League, the Burroughs cross country team accomplished everything it set out to at the beginning of the year. The Burros completed their season objectives at the DSL Finals on Wednesday at Victor Valley College, with the boys winning the league title and the girls coming in second.

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

VICTORVILLE — In its final season in the Desert Sky League, the Burroughs cross country team accomplished everything it set out to at the beginning of the year. The Burros completed their season objectives at the DSL Finals on Wednesday at Victor Valley College, with the boys winning the league title and the girls coming in second."This entire season has been a dream come true," Burros head coach Anthony Barnes said. "The kids stuck with the program and it paid off."After the Burroughs boys team and raced closely with Granite Hills in the two league cluster meets, the Burros delivered a comfortable result in the finals to win a first-ever league championship. The Burros beat the Cougars 37-49, ending their four-year reign atop the league."Execution was the key today — we ran as a team," Barnes said. "Having a week and a half off made us hungry again to pull it off. The team focused and worked on a couple of things, including starts, running more as a pack from the get-go and being more aggressive."Josh Boston led the way for Burroughs, winning the race with a time of 15:53 to defend his individual league championship. Boston finished 11 seconds faster than the next runner despite racing while sick."Josh just had more desire than the next guy," Barnes said. "With about a half-mile to go he was 50 yards behind, and he ended winning the race by more than 50 meters. He told me when he came in, 'I wasn't going to lose it — I wasn't going to give up my championship.'"Christian Schultz was the second fastest runner for Burroughs, racing to a fourth-place finish with a time of 16:42. Greg Ostrom came in seventh, completing the three-mile course in 17:20.Burroughs' final four runners helped the team comfortably secure the league championship. Nathaniel Aralar (17:38), Alex Salinas (17:46), Andrew Estabridis (17:47) and Alan Bradford (17:59) finished in 12th through 15th place — and each finished ahead of Granite Hills' fourth and fifth runners."We put seven guys in front of Granite Hills' fourth runner, so it was pretty much a slam dunk at that point," Barnes said. "For the seniors, it's the culmination of sticking together as a group and as a team. It's a great payoff for that commitment and dedication over the years."The Burroughs' girls team finished second at the DSL finals to secure a second-place finish in league. Granite Hills won the league championship with a dominant performance — the Cougars had seven of the top eight finishers."For the first time in two months, we actually lined up seven girls and finished with seven girls — that was a positive," Barnes said.The only runner to break up Granite Hills' stronghold at the top was Burroughs' Maryah Marcano, who finished second with a Burros' course-record time of 18:56. Only the Cougars' Katie Deimling finished ahead of Marcano."There was a very solid group of Granite Hills girls behind her, and they weren't able to close up the gap for second place," Barnes said. "She continues to go out there and keep trying it until it works and she beats (Deimling). In the process of doing that, she is leaving everybody else behind."Seven racers competed in the race for the Burros, who raced earlier in the season with the minimum requirement of five runners. Julia Ernst (ninth, 21:41), Anne Ewbank (10th, 22:03), Marin Carey (12th, 23:00) and Cindel Barnes (25th, 27:01) rounded out the top-five for Burroughs. Rawiah Osman (27th, 27:53) and Jenna Daugherty (28th, 28:52) also raced for Burroughs. With the regular season completed, Burroughs now looks to the postseason. Next up for the Burros are CIF Prelims on Saturday, Nov. 16 at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.