SGV Boys Final Team Rankings: Claremont All Year Long

Season long leader Claremont confirmed their status in the San Gabriel Valley’s final ranking for the 2018 Cross Country Season. The pre-season #1 Wolfpack won the tough Palomares League and finished second in the CIF-SS Div. 2 finals in a historically strong year.  These rankings are a merge of the adjusted results from the top 20 teams’ final race of the year through CIF Finals (see below for more details & rationale)

SGV #1 Earlier This Year at the Manhattan XC Invite

San Gabriel Valley Boys Cross Country Rankings

1. Claremont (Previously 1)
2. California (2)
3. La Serna (3)
4. Arroyo (5)
5. Arcadia (4)
6. Rowland (6)
7. Bonita (7)
8. South Pasadena (9)
9. Glendora (8)
10. South Hills (13)
11. Damien (10)
12. Pioneer (15)
13. Whittier (11)
14. Flintridge Prep (Not Ranked)
15. Walnut (12)

Left the Rankings

• Bishop Amat (14)

There wasn’t a great deal of movement from the previous rankings, which was a merge of league finals results, as our region’s best teams acquitted themselves well in their biggest races.

The rankings were pretty stable over the year, too, as the final Top 10 were all ranked in the first 15 in our Pre-Season Rankings. The biggest move up from 15th to 10th was from South Hills, who advanced to CIF Finals for the first time since 2009.

605 League Champ’s Pioneer, Hacienda champs Walnut and Damien were unranked in pre-season but made the final 15. The Titans advanced to the CIF-SS Div 4 finals, for probably the first time, while the Mustangs ran progressively better all year. Damien was a disappointing fourth at their league meet while running with injuries, but still competed well enough rank #11th in our region.

After the jump, the final merge with its rationale, along with the pre-season rankings.

2018 SGV Boys Final Cross Country Rankings

These rankings are meant to show what would happen  if the top teams of our region had competed in the same race, against only each other. Rather than each team’s best race or optimal race, they’re based on their actual results in each team’s most important race of the season – their final race.

Specifically, these rankings are based on a merge of the final race (through CIF Finals) of the top 20 teams, and then a second merge of the the 15 teams from that top 20.

The rankings are adjusted for courses and weather, but since Glendora and Damien were the only teams here that did not advance to CIF, those adjustments were minimal.

Also, in the final two columns, “CIF” is each school’s assignment in the CIF-SS’s five, enrollment-based divisions. “SGV” indicates a school’s place in a new, three-division classification for the SGV that adjusts school sizes to reflect demographic factors.

SGV Boys 2018 Pre-Season Rankings

1. Claremont (2017 Final Rank #1)
2. La Serna (#4)
3. Arcadia (#2)
4. California (#3)
5. Rowland (#6)
6. South Pasadena (#9)
7. Arroyo (#12)
8. El Rancho (#7)
9. Bonita (#10)
10. La Mirada (#15)
11. Flintridge Prep (#8)
12. Whittier (#5)
13. Glendora (#13)
14. Bishop Amat (#14)
15. South Hills (NR)