2015 SGV Girls XC – Pre-Season Rankings

Gabi Bennett, left and Lacy Coan of Flintridge Prep, Defending CIF Div. V Champs

The girls of the SGV had a great 2014 cross country season, taking two of the five CIF Championships: Bishop Amat in Div IV and Flintridge Prep in Div V.  FP followed up with a State Championship and Amat were second in Fresno. Twelve teams advanced to CIF Finals, and six to the State meet.

Looking forward to this season, Claremont looks to be the class of the SGV. But they compete in CIF Div II, which may be the strongest single HS division in the country, so CIF and State trophies will be a big achievement.  For some perspective, SGV #3 Ayala, also in D2, will need a strong performance to just to return to CIF Finals.

Further down the divisions, this could be the year Mayfield dethrones Flintridge, after finishing 2nd to their Prep League rivals last year at league, CIF and State.  Amat will be looking to repeat, but their big spread will hurt them in big races.

Newcomers can often have a big impact in girls XC, and you only have to get to five to be successful, so there may be some big swings in the rankings as the season progresses.

SGV 2015 Pre-Season Rankings

(Merge pts/School/’14 ranking/5 best returners time/1-5 gap)

1.    37 - Claremont (1) – 1:31:57 – 0:35
2.    64 - Arcadia (2) – 1:33:10 – 1:19
3. 105 - Ayala (4) – 1:34:46 – 1:53
4. 129 - Bishop Amat (3) – 1:35:05 – 2:58
5. 129 - Mayfield (6) – 1:36:12 – 1:46
6. 178 - Bonita (7) – 1:38:26 – 1:21
7. 185 - Whittier (7) – 1:38:39 – 0:43
8. 202 - Flintridge Prep (5) – 1:40:18 – 2:43
9. 220 – Covina (8) – 1:40:15 – 1:21
10. 247 - El Rancho (11) – 1:42:41 – 3:27
11. 245 - La Cañada (10) – 1:42:09 – 3:08
12. 269 - La Salle (16) – 1:42:48 – 0:55

Ranking Methodology: This ranking is a power merge of the teams with the 12 fastest 2014 Mt. SAC team times using only marks from 9th, 10th & 11th graders.

We didn’t track any transfers, nor make any adjustments based on 2015 track performances.

We rank the top 12, which is 15% of the 80 schools that advance to CIF finals in the five divisions of the Southern Section. The population of the SGV is about 15% of the population covered by the CIF-SS, so tracking the Top 12 gives us a rough equivalent of making CIF Finals is the SGV were it’s own section.

And as to any other inaccuracies or imbalances, that’s why we run the races.