Defending CIF-SS Div. 2 Champs Claremont began the season with a small edge in the pre-season rankings, but off of early performances, the Wolfpack has run away from the field.
Adding a transfer and a soph making a big jump in performance to their scorers, and having seven (!) boys already under 15:00, in a hypothetical SGV meet, Claremont would put 5 in the first 9 and all seven in the first 14.
It’s early, and teams are performing to expectations. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the early results of Glendora under first-year coach Brandon Ortiz (formerly of Baldwin Park)
These rankings are based only on times achieved in the first three weeks of the season, not on potential. Teams with injured athletes or runners who haven’t competed yet, will likely rise in the rankings later when those athletes run.
2018 San Gabriel Valley XC Rankings – Week 3
Claremont (Pre-Season – 1st)
Arcadia (3rd)
California (4th)
La Serna (2nd)
Arroyo (7th)
Rowland (5th)
Bonita (9th)
South Pasadena (6th)
Glendora (13th)
Flintridge Prep (11th)
Detailed Team Analysis through the Top 15 after the jump
The Claremont girls are three-time defending CIF Champs and two-time defending State Champs, so they came into 2018 as the class of the SGV. But even starting from a high level, the Wolfpack have taken a big step forward. Returning four of their first five from 2017, they’ve add super frosh Maddie Coles (#4 in the SGV) and those four have run an average of 53 seconds faster than at this time last year.
The two biggest surprises have been Bonita and South Pasadena. The Bearcats have made a big collective jump under first-year coach (and Bonita alum) Amanda Seibert, while the Tigers scored two frosh and two big step-ups in their opener.
These rankings are based only on times achieved in the first three weeks of the season, not on potential. Teams with injured athletes or runners who haven’t competed yet, like pre-season #2 Mayfield, will likely rise in the rankings later when those athletes run.
2018 San Gabriel Valley XC Rankings – Week 3
Claremont (Pre-Season – 1st)
Walnut (3rd)
La Cañada (5th)
Bishop Amat (4th)
Bonita (NR)
La Serna (8th)
Arcadia (9th)
California (6th)
South Pasadena (NR)
Glendora (10th)
Detailed Team Analysis through the Top 15 after the jump
The California boys (8th D1) and Walnut girls (7th D1) rode strong performances in the Woodbridge Invitational Sweepstakes races to jump into the CIF Rankings this week.  Claremont (boys & girls) and the Flintridge Prep boys remain top ranked in their divisions.
The Arroyo boys fell out of the rankings, leaving the SGV with seventeen ranked teams, the most so far this year. The Knights drop is a measure of the size of the challenge they face in their division.
In a bit of a surprise, neither the Bonita boys nor girls are (yet) ranked in Div. 3. While rankings are mostly for fun during the season, qualifying out of the strong Palomares League will be tough, and the Bearcats may need to be ranked to advance to CIF.
Nogales’ Osvaldo Cervantes leads a pack of runners during the Boys Division 3 CIF-Southern Section Cross Country Finals at Riverside City Cross Country Course in Riverside Saturday, November 18, 2017. FRANK BELLINO, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE/SCNG
Oswaldo Cervantes (Nogales, Sr) had a breakthrough performance and the Walnut girls scored an excellent team result to highlight the SGV’s results on the second day of the giant Woodbridge Invitational. On Saturday, the larger schools competed and the elite races were held at the SilverLakes Sports Complex in Norco on a fast, flat 3-mile course that may have been a bit longer than previous years.
Cervantes was entered as an individual in the Sweeps race on the strength of his 5th place finish at last year’s CIF Div. 3 Finals, a result that also advanced him to the State meet. Running his first meet of the year, Oswaldo showed he belonged by running 14:45 for 40th in the super-deep race. This was the third fastest ever by an SGV athlete on this course, and he was followed closely by fast-rising Arcadia junior Jacob Hsu 46th/14:49.
Walnut’s Top Four Runners at last year’s Mt.SAC Relays.
The Walnut girls were 8th the top Sweepstakes race, with a great 87:46 team time. They were the third best CIF-SS school, and beat three Top Ten Div. 1 teams and three Top 10’s from D2. They were again led by superb performances by Chloe Arriaga (3rd/16:11) – just off her time from last year and Emma Arriaga (18th/16:51) – her best ever result for 3 miles. Just as important were PR’s from soph Anastasia Sloan & junior Amanda Ghidaudo. The Mustangs are now firmly in contention for CIF and State honors.
Elsewhere among the girls, La Cañada turned in another solid performance, finishing 10th/92:03 in the Rated race and confirming their place in the CIF-SS Div. 4 rankings. Bonita was 2nd in their Divisional race, and continue to edge closer to Div. 3 contention, while Claremont showed their depth with their B team winning their divisional race in 92:28, third best among the SGV.
The Arcadia boys confirmed their quality, and California took a big step up while La Serna was solid. The Apaches ran a closely grouped 75:28 to finish 11th in the very deep Sweeps race, and the Condors were just behind in 13th/75:42, led by Andres Espinosa (14:53) and Angel Salinas (14:57). Jesse Montez (14:59) was up front for the Lancers, who were 19th/76:13 in the Sweeps. La Cañada’s Owen Serricchio continued his strong senior season with a 14:59, nearly a minute faster than his previous life-time best here last year.
The smaller schools kicked off the action Friday at the massive Woodbridge Invitational – run over a very fast and flat 3-mile course at Silverlakes Sports Park in Norco.
The SGV #4 Bishop Amat girls opted to run in the divisional race rather than the big race on Saturday, and turned in a very fine performance to win their race with 94:04 team time, 22 seconds better than the previous week at the Cool Breeze Invitational. Led by Olivia Paez (1st SGV/18:01), the Lancers were especially helped by a big seasonal improvement from senior Gia Carrera, which now gives them five solid performers. This will greatly boost their post-season chances.
The South Pasadena girls also made their mark on Friday. Running their first meet of the season, they had three frosh in their scoring five, and registered a solid 95:48 effort. Best for the Tigers was frosh Sydney Morrow (4th SGV/18:16), with their #5 only 1:18 back.
Christian Santiago – the SGV’s Best on Friday
La Mirada’s Christian Santiago continued his solid senior season with a SGV best for the day of 15:29, but the Matadors had a bit of a rough day relative to expectations, with his next teammate nearly a minute back.
Damien turned in the best boys performance on Friday. Soph Danny Ebiner emerged as the new team leader at 15:46, a nearly two minute improvement from his run here as a frosh. Just as important was the run of frosh Eric Martinez – his 15:54 time was the best by an SGV 9th-grader this year, and it now gives the Spartans a solid first five.
The Woodbridge Invitational is huge. It’s run over two days by 320 schools, nearly 100 in just the elite Sweepstakes and Rated races. Teams are coming from 14 states and five different time zones. It’s outgrown several locations and is now held in Norco rather than at Woodbridge in Irvine.
The meet also looms large in the the expectations of the athletes. Run mostly under the lights on a completely flat and “generously measured” course, most will run their best 3-mile time here.
Forty San Gabriel Valley will take part. SGV ranked La Serna, Arcadia, and California are in the Boys Sweeps race, (along with Olsvaldo Cervantes of Nogales) while Flintridge Prep, Rowland and South Pasadena are in the Rated Race. El Rancho, Bonita, and La Mirada will run in the regular varsity divisions.
Covina junior Katelyn Vuong
Mayfield and Walnut are entered in the girls Sweeps race along with Joyce Wu (Arcadia) and Katelyn Vuong (Covina). SGV teams California, La Cañada, La Serna and St. Lucy’s will be in the rated race, while SGV ranked Glendora, Bishop Amat and Flintridge Prep be in the regular Varsity divisions.
Look for the three SGV boys teams in the Sweeps race to duke it our for who is best in the area behind Claremont – who will only be racing non-varsity athletes here. The Walnut, Mayfield, and La Cañada girls will be our top team contenders, while Chloe and Emma Arriaga (Walnut) will challenge for top honors. They could be joined at the front by the Mayfield’s stellar soph Audrey Suarez, but it’s likely that she will delay her 2018 debut for at least another week.
Meet Details:
The smaller schools – (the Red and White Divisions) will race on Friday, beginning at 5:00pm, the larger schools (the Blue and Gold divisions) go on Saturday, starting a 3:50pm.
The meet divisions are somewhat idiosyncratic, you can view all of the teams by division here.
The Hacienda League Opened their league season on Wednesday with a pair of expected wins from Walnut. The Mustangs are defending boys and girls champs and returned all but one of their scorers so they came in expecting to defend, and they did.
In the girls race, Walnut’s top four ran together and ran away, finishing nearly two minutes ahead of the #5 runner. Chloe Arriaga (19:44) with the next three finishing within 7 seconds. Arissa Hatcher from Hacienda newcomer South Hills broke up the Mustangs with a 5th placed, 21:37 effort. The Huskies were third behind West Covina with only four teams scoring.
Devin Hightower (South Hills) made himself and the Huskies at home in their new league with a narrow win over Jesse Alvarado of the easy team winners Walnut. Los Altos put all five in the first 12 to nail down second. South Hills was third and all six schools scored.
Varsity Leaders and links to complete results after the jump
Arroyo senior Noah Hibbard is our first SGV Athlete of the Week for 2018, on the strength of his dominating win at the Rosemead Invitational. His 14:28 at Rosemead was the fastest ever for a SGV athlete on that course.
Noah is the defending Mission Valley League champ, and finished 14th at last year’s CIF-SS Div. 2 Finals. His win on Saturday was nearly a minute faster than his time there last year, so both he and his team have set their sights much higher for 2018.
So here our first interview (Noah is great, but the quality is a little choppy – we’ll get better)
Arroyo took their first steps toward defending their Mission Valley League Championships Tuesday, with two comfortable wins in the first MVL cluster, running on the flat and fairly fast 3-mile course at Whitter Narrows/Legg Lake in South El Monte.
The Start of the Boys Varsity Race
The boys race went out comfortably until around 2 miles when the Knights’ five scorers made a move that only Gabrielino’s fast-rising soph Nicolas DiConti could cover. DiConti finished fourth, at 16:27, breaking up AHS, who were led by Noah Hibbard with an easy 16:15 win. Rosemead, led by Fausto Reyna (7th/17:04) was second to Arroyo’s 17 points with 77, followed by Gabrielino with 92.
Molly Hake – left, and Melanie Mach lead early in the Girls race. Photo Thanks: Eren Ramirez
The girls race also went out fairly easily, with a big lead group until about halfway. Then, Rosemead’s Melanie Mach, who is having an outstanding start to the season, strung out the group. Only Arroyo senior Molly Hake could stay with her until about 1000m to go, when Melanie made another big move to win going away, 19:38 to 19:58. The Knights scored a clear 23-41 win over the Panthers, with all seven Arroyo runners in the top 10. Gabrielino, led by frosh Kristen Song (11th/20:35) was third with 88 points.
Complete Results (Arroyo also won the other three divisions) are here.
Boys Results
17 -Â Arroyo
71 -Â Rosemead
92 -Â Gabrielino
105 - El Monte – Best: Louis Torres (12th/17:29)
110 - South El Monte - David Aguilar (8th/17:05)
144 - Marshall - Jonathan Garcia (17th/17:58)
DNS -Â Mountain View – did not enter the Varsity Race
Girls Results
23 – Arroyo
41 – Rosemead
88 -Â Gabrielino
99 - South El Monte – Best: Karla Ortega (13th/20:53)
149 - Marshall - Callie Guthrie (23rd/22:33)
168 - El Monte - Evelyn ? (30th/23:33)
DNS -Â Mountain View – did not enter the Varsity Race
Sixteen San Gabriel Valley teams rank in the Top Ten of the CIF-SS five divisions. Unlike other sports that try to group schools by “competitive equity” cross country’s divisions are solely by enrollment.
The big move comes from the La Cañada girls, who were dropped from the rankings last week after running a partial team at their openers. The Spartans 8th overall finish at the Cool Breeze Invitational moved them back into the CIF Div. 4 rankings at #7.
The Claremont boys big win at the same meet moved them to top of the rankings of Div. 2. They were the 2017 CIF champs and are clearly looking to defend
This site is maintained by Bob Ramsey – a SGV T&F athlete (Arroyo ’80), and former coach at Glendora HS and Meet Director of the SGV Champs. Bob is currently Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Whittier College
