Time to see who is the best in the city

The annual Burbank All-City Cross-Country Meet is supposed to be an

event that features all four area schools -- Burbank, Burroughs,

Bellarmine-Jefferson and Providence.

However, for the 15th installment of the event the Pioneer boys’

and girls’ teams will be missing because they will be competing in a

Liberty League meet.

The All-City event will take place at 3 p.m. Thursday at Griffith

Park on Bell-Jeff’s home course close to the Greek Theatre.

The absence of the Pioneers won’t likely affect the team results,

as Providence squads have never won the competition.

It isn’t the first time Providence has missed the competition, as

it also didn’t compete in 2002 because of a conflict with a league

race.

The event wasn’t run four years ago and was canceled because of

the Sept. 11 tragedies.

This year’s races are wide open in the boys’ and girls’ divisions,

as last year’s champions have graduated.

The girls’ race was won the last two years by Burroughs’ Katie

Vahoviak, who is now at Long Beach State.

On the boys’ side, Bell-Jeff’s Gerard Herkey captured the 2004

title. Herkey, who advanced to the State Meet, is running

cross-country for the USC club team (the Trojans don’t have NCAA

cross-country teams).

The runner-up in the boys’ race a year ago, Jeff Pang of

Bell-Jeff, also graduated.

In the team competition, the Burroughs boys’ will be trying to

defend their title. The Indian girls will be attempting to do the

same.

The 2.9-mile course is a challenging hilly layout. It is the same

course used at the annual Bellarmine CrossCountry Invitational.