BOYS - DIVISION 5
#1 EAST VALLEY
Last year was a BIG year for East Valley, winning both the City D5 team and individual titles. Incumbent City Champion ABEL SERRANO leads the Falcons into the ’24 season and both he and the Falcons are favorites for repeat City titles. Teammate MARVIN JOHNSON showed steady improvement last year and finished big with a 3rd place finish at the City Championships. Right behind him was ERNETSO HERNANDEZ who placed 4th in the race. These are battle tested athletes that have proven their capabilities. And it’s not unreasonable to think that they could pull off a 1-3 sweep this year at City Finals. Two sophomores fill out the scoring roster for East Valley in ‘24. GABRIEL ARVIZU was the top finishing freshman last year placing 13th in the City Varsity Championship race. And VALERI PETROSYAN won the frosh/soph league finals last year and has continued to show promise in track this spring.
Marvin Johnson was just 10 seconds away from a D5 individual title last year. He’ll be in the hunt for a title in ‘24.
#2 COMMUNITY CHARTER
Something happened to the Community Charter boys XC program in 2023. Until last year the Titans struggled to qualify for City Finals and in several years did not make it past Prelims. But last year they made a huge jump to 2nd against an East Valley team that was not going to be denied a championship. In 2024 East Valley is vulnerable and Community Charter returns with 6 of their top 7. DANIEL MARTINEZ led the Titans last year but JOSUE GONZALEZ was always close behind and actually has a better Pierce PR. These two are the key to a possible first City title for Community Charter. Their mission is to break up East Valley’s powerful top 3 but to do so they need to run smarter in post season which means saving their best race for City Finals. Both of these runners, and in fact 4 of the top 5 Titan scorers, ran better in Prelims than Finals. For reference, check out past City Finals winners; they typically run 20-60 seconds slower in Prelims. CARLOS MARTINEZ and LOUIS SANDOVAL will also need to step up. If they can hold position on East Valley’s # 4 AND take some big points off their score by running low-18’s they have a legitimate shot at #1. Look for JESUS SANCHEZ to make big improvements this fall. He impressed last year as a freshman taking 2 minutes off his Pierce time throughout the season to earn the #6 varsity spot for Community Charter.
Daniel Martinez completed an impressive junior season last year with a 5th place finish in the D5 City title race. If he can execute his best race on November 23rd he has a chance at the individual title.
#3 SUN VALLEY MAGNET
RESPECT to Sun Valley Magnate. This is one of the smaller XC programs in LA City but they consistently rank in the top 5, and more recently the top 2. The Pioneers have yet to win a City title and while they’ll be close in ‘24, the title will likely have to wait another year. This is a well coached team that typically participates in Woodbridge, Mt. Sac and Bell-Jeff; something you don’t see often in D4 or D5 teams. The 2024 Pioneers team is young and has all 7 varsity runners from 2023 returning this fall. That’s a potent combination. And several of these runners continued running this spring in their track program; again, somewhat unusual for D5. So there’s a lot that lines up right for Sun Valley. Senior JOSEPH JUAREZ and junior ANGEL SOLORIO are Sun Valley’s top returners and should continue to lead in ‘24. JUAREZ ran XC for the 1st season as a junior after several season running shorter distances in track. He only shows 3 races last year, all on Pierce, but posted a very solid PR of 17:38.5. SOLORIO shares a somewhat similar story. He ran distance for the 1st time last year after starting out as a sprinter in 9th grade. He also showed big improvements last year breaking 18 minutes in the Central Valley League Finals and then again at Prelims. Look for both JUAREZ and SOLORIO to compete for the individual D5 City title this year. A fair distance behind these 2 are a junior and 3 sophomores that will likely comprise the future Sun Valley team that has a chance to win their 1st City Championship in ‘25 or 26. Junior BRANDON GARCIA improved his Pierce PR by almost 3 minutes last year. He’ll be targeting a top-15 All City performance this fall. Sophomores NESTOR SOLORIO, ABISAI UMANZOR and LUIS FAJARDO all had Pierce PR’s within 30 seconds of each other. FAJARDO had the edge in track this season and may be the one that breaks out this fall. This is a very exciting team that can definitely take down Community Charter though East Valley may be out of reach this year.
Sun Valley consistently places in the top 3 in D5 and 2024 will be no exception. (front l-r) Brandon Garcia-Jr, Joseph Juarez -Sr (2019), Matthew Tinoco-Grad (2022), Angel Solorio-Jr (2021), (back) Abisai Umanzor-So (2023), Diego Millan-Grad (2020), Prabhnoor Antal-Sr (2017)
Note: grades are for ‘24
Division 5 Best of the Rest . . .
Rise Koyyan senior JAMES MENDEZ won the Galaxy League Finals last year and just missed the D5 City Championship Title by .6 seconds. This year’s D5 City race will be a rematch against last year’s winner East Valley’s Abel Serrano.
New West Charter junior AARON LEE will be targeting sub-17 on Pierce and a top-5 finish at City Finals.
Top USC-MaST senior ARIXANDER HENRIQUEZ showed his potential in City Prelims last year with a 17:49.3. If he can continue to improve this year he should be in contention for a top-10 finish on Championship day.
Central City Value junior JESUS CONTERAS has shown profound and consistent improvements in his first 2 years of running. Look for CONTRERAS to be a factor in the ‘24 D5 Championship race.
James Mendez will be looking for redemption in ‘24 in the form of an individual D5 City title.
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