2011 Individual Rankings (So Far)

With four weeks down in the 2011 San Gabriel Valley Cross Country Season, everyone has raced, and everyone has raced hard, so we can begin to get a sense of how the runners rank.  However, the races have been over super-fast courses in cool evening weather (Woodbridge and Rosemead) and over slow courses in hot weather, requiring some very inexact conversions to try to compare performances.

Sergio & Ryan at Bob Firman

This coming weekend, many of the athletes will race on the two benchmark course’s for SGV XC – Woodward Park in Fresno, home of the California State Meet, and Mt.SAC, site of the Invite, several league meets, and the Southern Section Prelims and Finals.  It will be the athletes’ performances on these courses in the coming weeks that will really prove their worth.

With that throat clearing out of the way, the top boys performances of this season have come from a pair of Arcadia runners, and none of the top performers are really a surprise.  The senior due of Sergio Gonzalez and Ryan Vargas have been the class of the SGV, leading their team to a meet record win at Woodbridge, and running really strong races to pace another team win at the national Bob Firman Invite in Idaho.  Daniel De La Torre (Jr, La Salle) returned from an injury marred ’10 track season with strong performances at the Fastback Shootout and the Mt. Carmel meet in San Diego.  Whittier senior Aaron Mora has made a nice progression following two strong 2nd place finishes in San Diego and at Rosemead with a big win in the suddenly tough Del Rio League cluster meet.

The top two girls performances came at Woodbridge from Arcadia’s Veronica Yamane (So) and Alejandra Quintero (Sr), but their later performances have been up and down. Yamane followed up with a win at the Pacific League Cluster and a bit of an off day at Staub/Barnes, while Quintero was further back in the league meet and did not race last weekend.  The next two on the list have a series of solid races.  Bonita junior Marissa Scott opened with a solo wins in the divisional races at Woodbridge and Dana Hills.  Kellian Hunt (Sr, Whittier Christian) followed an excellent opener in the Woodbridge sweeps race with a Divisional Meet Record at Dana Hills.

The new season has also brought a strong group of newcomers the XC scene, especially among the girls, where five of the top 22 are frosh, led by Arcadia’s Laura Guidolin.

Top 14 Boys and Girls and Top 5 Boys Frosh/Soph.

2011 SGV Top Performers though October 1/Week 4

Please Note:  It is notoriously difficult to compare XC performances.  The athletes listed below ran different and possibly inaccurately measured distances, in different weather, over different running surfaces and terrain.  These rankings try to account for those differences by converting times to a norm of a flat, 3-mile course.  Your mileage may vary.

Conversion Factors

• Bob Firman: (-1:15 boys) – 5000 meters, two sharp hills, very slow surfaces.
  
• Bell/Jeff: No Conversion – 2.9 miles, shortness balances out the hills
  
• Mt. Carmel: (– 40 boys) – 2.95 miles, crowded, hilly
• Sunny Hills: (- 20 boys) – 3 miles, hilly, sections of deep grass
• Don Bosco, Great Cow Run, Legg Lake, Rosemead, Woodbridge: No Conversion – 3 miles, flat, good surfaces

Boys

1. 15:55/14:20  Sergio Gonzalez, Sr – Arcadia – Bob Firman
2. 15:56/14/21  Ryan Vargas, Sr – Arcadia – Bob Firman
3. 15:16/14:36  Daniel De La Torre, Jr – La Salle – Mt. Carmel
4. 14:40/14:40  Aaron Mora, Sr – Whittier – Rosemead
5. 14:41/14:41  Estevan De La Rosa, So – Arcadia – Woodbridge
6. 14:44/14:44  Josue Gonzalez, So – Arcadia – Woodbridge
7. 14:55/14:55  Charlie Shen, Sr – Arcadia – Woodbridge
8. 14:57/14:57  Tom Ebiner, Sr – Damien – Don Bosco
9. 14:57/14:57  Henry Rodriguez, Sr – El Rancho – Woodbridge
10. 14:59/14:59  Francis Lee, Sr – Arcadia – Woodbridge
11. 15:20/15:00  Ryan Sanchez, Glendora – Sunny Hills
12. 15:00/15:00  Bobby Villagomez, Sr – Los Altos – Rosemead
13. 15:01/15:01  Sam Bautista, Jr – California – Great Cow Run
14. 16:38/15:03  Mitchell Pratt, Jr – Arcadia – Bob Firman

Top Frosh/Sophs

1. 14:41/14:41  Estevan De La Torre, So – Arcadia – Woodbridge
2. 14:44/14:44  Josue Gonzalez, So – Arcadia – Woodbridge
3. 15:11/15:11  Joshua Wilson, So – South Pasadena – Woodbridge
4. 15:35/15:15  Mike Duke, So – Glendora – Sunny Hills
5. 15:19/15:19  Jose Pacheco, So – California – Del Rio/Legg Lake

Girls (No conversions needed)

1. 17:17  Veronica Yamane, So – Arcadia – Woodbridge
2. 17:17  Alejandra Quintero, Sr – Arcadia – Woodbridge
3. 17:25  Marissa Scott, Jr – Bonita – Woodbridge
4. 17:26  Kellian Hunt, Sr – Whittier Christian – Woodbridge
5. 17:29  Laura Guidolin, Fr – Arcadia – Woodbridge
6. 17:33  Helena Van Loan, So – South Pasadena – Woodbridge
7. 17:45  Bailee Henry, Jr – El Rancho – Woodbridge
8. 17:45  Sonja Cwik, Jr – La Cañada – Bell/Jeff
9. 17:58  Anna Barcelo, Sr – Nogales – Woodbridge
10. 17:59  Marilu Pulido, Sr – Whittier – Rosemead
11. 18:06  Megan Renken, So – Claremont – Woodbridge
12. 18:07  Merin Artf, So – Claremont – Woodbridge
13. 18:10  Melanie Deciga, So – Walnut – Rosemead
14. 18:14  Alyssa Rivas, So – Mayfield – Rosemead
15. 18:14  Anahi Betart, Fr – Walnut – Rosemead