LA City XC Rankings #1 IP: 104.32.126.233 Posted on September 28, 2014 at 10:23:41 PM by runtowin
All right, let's get some discussion going. Here are the first rankings of the new season. Try to make sure that someone posts on the message board or at athletic.net your results, so these can be as accurate as possible. Enjoy!
2014 LA City XC Rankings #1
Girls:
1) Palisades: Not at full strength yesterday but looked good at Seaside and Woodbridge. Marissa Williams leads them, but depth behind her could be the deciding factor. Looking for back to back for 4 seniors.
2) San Pedro: Decent performance at Woodbridge, still looking for debut of Tipich. Bunnell PR’d in first xc race since ankle fracture at City Prelims. Depth improving, will it be enough to garner 11th City title?
3) Granada Hills: Good performance yesterday, right behind a shorthanded Palisades. Good top 4, but #5 probably too far behind for now to break up top 2, but in 8 weeks………..
4) Taft: Under 100 minutes at Woodbridge, led by Alch and Lee. Depth a little better than Granada, but will need to continue dropping their times to win the always tough West Valley League.
5) Marshall: Just over 100 minutes at Woodbridge, didn’t run as well yesterday. Solid team, but being on podium at City Finals may be best case scenario.
6) Brimingham: Ran well at Seaside, not too hot yesterday. Looking for consistency under new coaching staff.
7) Chatsworth: No results yet, but on paper they return entire team that was 4th last year. Assuming first meet will be this week?
8) Santee: Girls have been overshadowed by the boy’s success at Santee over the last few years, but this might be the year that the girls step up onto the podium at City Finals. Solid team effort at Laguna Hills.
9) Narbonne: First meet was at Peck on Thursday. Have good returning group and looked fine, but other teams not at full strength on Thursday.
10) Polytechinic: Slightly faster team time yesterday over ECR gives them the nod here.
INDIVIDUALS: Marissa Williams (Pali) is looking for her 3rd straight title and 10th overall (including track and field). Natalie Marsh (Pali), Danielle Nunez (SP), and Becky Alch (Taft) had the fastest times at Woodbridge, but a breakout performance by Nathalie Realegeno (Granada) at Bell-Jeff puts her on the radar.
BOYS
1) El Camino Real: Had fastest team times at Woodbridge and Bel-Jeff. Good depth and balance, could this be year of 1st boy’s title?
2) Marshall: Beat Palisades yesterday, so they take over the #2 spot. Led by city favorite Hector Garcia, the Barristers are in position to battle for a city title again, can they finally win a title?
3) Palisades: A young improving team, may be the team to look for in two months. Led by Brouwer, on a good day, they can be very tough.
4) Santee: Ran well at Laguna Hills and looked solid at Peck Park on Thursday. Good deep team, expect them to be higher than 4th at city, they are always ready to go in November.
5) Venice: Had good debut at Rosemead a couple of weeks ago with top 3 under 16:20. Luevano has had back to back sub 15:00 performances, but will need help from 4-5 runners in order to compete for a City title or even a Western League title.
6) San Pedro: Another inexperienced team, lost 4 of top 5 from last year’s champs. Should be at full strength this week for South Bay Cup, will probably need all season to have shot at back to back titles.
7) Granada Hills: Debuted yesterday at Bell Jeff, Cucuta looked strong, but unless back end strength improves they will have tough time getting on podium.
8) Monroe: Nice depth at Woodbridge led by Delcampo. Would like to get on podium, where they haven’t been since back to back titles.
9) Birmingham: Great duo up front of Alexander and Ceja, but after that is still a ? If they want some team hardware in a couple of months, 3-4-5 will need to perform.
10) Taft: Torreadors always come around by November, and this is a senior laden team. No up front runners could hurt them in the big meets.
Individuals: Hector Garcia (Marshall) had a great track season and he has started out strong in cross country and is the favorite, but behind him are two city champions, Paul Luevano (Venice) has 2 sub 15:00’s to his credit already this season and Ryan Alexander (Birmingham) is slowly coming around. Don’t forget Christian Cucuta (Granada).