LA City’s Best Get Ready for ‘24 XC

The Top City Runners From Each Division:
(l-r) Angelina Lopez-Sr Canoga Park, Amber Lopez-JR Verdugo Hills, Kellie Mena-Jr MaCES, Blake Sigworth-Jr Palisades Charter, Jorge Montenegro-Sr Monroe, Demitri Hernandez-Sr Mendez, Angeles Feliciano-Sr Santee, Abel Serrano-Sr East Valley, Valerie Palma-Jr Stern, Zoey Morris-So Palisades Charter; Not pictured Carlos Aguiar-Sr Washington Prep (D5)

Heard on the Trails

LACXC.com will be in Huntington Beach this Saturday for the Central Park Invitational where Canoga Park, Granada Hills, Hamilton, Middle College, Monroe, Taft (Frosh only) and Venice (sans P. Tranquilla) are scheduled to compete.
Canoga Park senior ANGELINA LOPEZ placed 1st in the Varsity race at the Raider Invite at Oxnard College on Sept. 26th in a a PR of 18:24.0. Angelina has run a full minute ahead of same race performances in both the Ojai and Raider Invitationals compared to last year which should set her up for a sub-18 minute performance at Pierce on Nov. 23rd ONLY 50 DAYS AWAY.
City D1 Boys will have 3 State qualifying bids in 2024 which should heat up competition between San Pedro, Granada Hills and Venice
The Granada boys ran an extra 600 meters in the Division 1 Varsity race at Nike Portland XC. All other races at the event were at the official 5K distance.
PAUL TRANQUILLA won’t be running until Mt. Sac due to schedules for school visits during October. Mt. Sac will be the preview for post-season at Pierce and hopefully some redemption for last year.
Top rated D5 XC program East Valley is without a coach, or team, or both. If that holds true the race for D5 City Champion should rest with Community Charter or Sun Valley.

Woodbridge Update

Granada Hills’ Junior SAMMY PACHECO was the lone City winner at Woodbridge on Saturday, taking 1st in the Varsity Blue-B race. Even though that race, and Sammy’s performance, were two highlights at Woodbridge, LACXC.com completely missed the race due to the tight scheduling of other City races. So as restitution for this grievous injustice, here’s a highlight reel courtesy of HDRunners:

Sammy Pacheco - Woodbridge Varsity Blue-B

Palisades Coach Wins Top Honors

Palisades XC Coach ROBERT HOCKLEY has been selected as the Los Angeles City Section Coach of The Year for the 2023-2024 school year. This is well earned recognition on the heels of leading 3 boys teams and the ‘23 girls teams to City Championships in his first years as head coach at Palisades Charter as well as taking the boys to 4th place in the ‘23 D1 State Championship in a City team record time on the Woodward course. Due in great part to Coach Hockley and the Palisades boys teams, City now has 3 State qualifiers for D1 boys. Congratulations to Coach Robert Hockley.

Central Park Invite

Huntington Beach
October 5th, 2024

On a day when many of the top varsity runners for City teams opted out of competition, the younger runners shined. Veterans SAMMY PACHECO (Granada Hills) and CHARLES SIMON (Venice) had the top City times on Saturday but Taft sophomore ISABELLA SALCALOWSLCY and Venice freshman WHITNEY DERBY where the top City finishers. Isabella led the Sophomore S1 race from start to finish to win in 20:05.1; the 6th fastest girls City time. And, Whitney had a huge finish to sprint ahead in the last 100 meters to earn a 2nd place in the Freshman S1 race. Granada freshman TRINIDAD MONTENEGRO ran in the Varsity race and posted the top 9th-grade time of 20:11.0. Teammate AIDEN MATUL BARRIOS posted the top City sophomore time for the boys 16:45.2 in the Varsity race. Taft sophomore JONAH SIMKIN was the highest placing City boy with a 14th place finish in the Sophomore S1 race in 17:21.4.

Much of the Granada Hills varsity team were out at Mt. Sac checking out the new course while Taft’s varsity did a training run at Central Park in lieu of racing. The Monroe boys fell during the Varsity S1 race so their times are 20-30 seconds off potential. Canoga Park standout ANGELINA LOPEZ was sidelined for Central Park so hopefully we’ll see her at Mt. Sac for a full 3-mile race. And, SOCES junior ALEXANDRA VILLANUEVA was a no show; she hasn’t run since last XC season so her fate for ‘24 XC looks in doubt.

Canoga Park Girls Varsity
(l-r) Vanessa Perez, Jasmin Garcia, Nelly Flores, Dulce Godinez, Abriele Arcilla, Sarai Rosas, Abrianna Robles

Monroe’s New Team Kits
Top: Jorge Montenegro, Oscar Garcia (2312)
Middle: Juan Nunez (2314), Alison Osorio (2321), Estefani Alas (2317), Raul Sanchez (2316), Laura Diaz (2319), Sebastian Perez (2315), Nayelly Flores (2320),
Front: Mishelle Zuniga (2323), Yazmin Cerritos (2318), Gennesis Valdez (2322)

ISABELLA SALCALOWSLCY leads the Sophomore S1 race at the 2-mile mark by a lot!. She won the race in 20:05.1 to lead all Taft runners and rank as the 6th fastest City runner on the day.

Sophomore AIDEN MATUL BARRIOS posted a 16:45.2 in the Varsity S1 race, the 5th fastest City time at Central Park.

Bell-Jeff Invite

Griffith Park
September 28th, 2024

The D1 City girls impressed big time at Bell-Jeff taking 8 of the top 10 places in the Varsity Large school race (see pictures in gallery below) while Palisades won the team title for the 2nd year in a row. The Pali boys team placed 2nd in the Large School race led by 3rd place finisher ZACHARY COHEN. BRIDGETT TRUJILLO (Miguel Contreras) won the Girls Varsity Small race and AMBER LOPEZ (Verdugo Hills) placed 2nd. Palisades boys went 1-3 in the Frosh/Soph Large School Race with MAKO HOLT winning and 2/3rds of the freshman triplet team taking 2nd and 3rd, ETHAN and JUSTIN FUNK. Granada Hills freshman ELENA MEDRANO won the Girls Frosh/Soph All School and Venice’s WHITNEY DERBY placed 2nd in the same race.

Most of the Granada Hills varsity teams ran up at Nike Portland this weekend, Venice’s varsity team opted for a long run at Griffith Park versus racing, Taft didn’t run Bell-Jeff, and some of ECR’s top runners were MIA. So no big updates to D1 rankings based on Bell-Jeff. .

The gallery below highlights some of City’s top City girl athletes that were unfortunately not given adequate coverage at Woodbridge last week.

City Takes 8 of Top 10 Places in Varsity Large School Race

2nd Sammy Pacheco - Granada Hills 19:22.6
3rd Zoey Morris - Palisades Charter 19:34.9
4th Meztli Velazquez - Cleveland 19:39.8
5th Lulu Mammen - Palisades Charter 19:40.6
7th Ananya Balaraman - N. Hollywood 19:47.0
8th Kelia Naranjo-Champion - Garfield 20:11.6
9th Yesenia Valdez - Birmingham 20:45.9
10th Gabriella Gilyard - Palisades Charter 20:47.9

BRIDGETTE TRUJILLO finishes a dominant performance in the Varsity Medium School Race to win in 20: 20.7, a 34 second PR over last year’s time at Bell-Jeff. Bridgette is the #3 returning D2 runner from last year’s City Championship.

Last year’s D3 City Champion AMBER LOPEZ placed 2nd in the Varsity Medium Race in 20:40.1. She’ll be looking to go sub-19 minutes at Pierce in November.

Palisades 2.0

Palisades Charter’s future has arrived. Sophomore MAKO HOLT (2089) and freshmen ETHAN FUNK (2085) and JUSTIN FUNK (2086) placed 1st, 2nd & 3rd in the Frosh/Soph Large Race. Their times ranked as the 7th, 9th & 10th best City times overall at Bell-Jeff. Two other freshmen, THEO MAYEDA and SEBASTIAN FUNK, competed in the Varsity race.

Sisters and Brothers

Sisters LULU and ELEANOR MAMMEN follow in the footsteps of their brother Axel (Palisades ‘24) . Lulu posted the 5th fastest time at Bell-Jeff and Elaanor was the 3rd best freshman on the day,.

Freshman OLIVIA CORRIGAN was the top Eagle Rock finisher at Bell-Jeff. Eleanor is sister to “Olympian” JAMES CORRIGAN and sister City Standouts CELESTE (ER ‘22) and ELIZABETH CORRIGAN (Crescenta Valley ‘24).
Note: Elizabeth ran at Eagle Rock for 3 years.

Here’s how City teams ranked based on performances for each team at Bell-Jeff . *Scoring is based on the top 7 performances for each team, using standard CIF scoring, compiled by division (all non-City teams have been excluded). Teams that did not have 5 performances at Bell-Jeff are N/A.

The Great Park - Irvine, Ca
Sept. 20th and 21st, 2024

Woodbridge:

Live Results

The premier City race of the 2024 Woodbridge Invite was the Girls Varsity Blue -B race which had City’s top D1 teams going head-to-head for the first time this year. Granada Hills’ SAMMY PACHECO took full advantage of the chance to show her talents with a typically gutsy performance of 17:34.6 that earned her the win and the top City time at Woodbridge, and in the overall City rankings. Cleveland senior MEZTLI VELAZQUEZ pushed hard in the last 2 miles to move from 26th to 5th at the finish in her first 3-mile PR in over 2 years. Meztli had the 3rd fastest third mile in the race. Granada’s SOPHIA BATTLE continued to impress with another personal best of 18:27.1, her 2nd PR in 2 weeks. And, Taft’s KENNEDY BRANNON ran over a minute faster than her previous PR to finish in 18:34.0. Big performances all around! Sorry, no pictures from this race.

Here’s the girls D1 scoring based on ALL ‘24 Woodbridge performances:

Woodbridge Recap

*Scores are calculated based on each City D1 team’s top- 5 performances at Woodbridge across all races on Friday and Saturday.

The counterpart to this race had Granada Hills, Taft, Birmingham, and Cleveland facing off against each other in the Boys Varsity Blue-B race. Six City boys broke 16 minutes in this race including Granada Hills’ senior DANIEL RAMIREZ, the top City runner in the race with a PR of 15:09.6 and (in lessons learned from Rosemead?) the 3rd fastest mile in the race, 4:55.9. Taft junior ETHAN BAROK was close behind in a 48-second PR of 15:16.5 to rank him in the top-10 in City so far this year. Another junior, Birmingham’s ALEXIS HUERTA, shaved 39 seconds off his previous best to post a time of 15:25.5. Cleveland’s NATHANIEL MELGOAZA was 23 seconds better than last year to finish in 51st place in 15:36.3. Taft’s HUNTER BENNETT was the 5th City runner to cross the line with a 31 second PR of 15:44.8. And Granada Hills junior JOAQUIN ORTEGA-TOMASELLI was the final runner under 16 minutes posting a PR of 15:55.6. Really nice performances!

Three other boys’ races will have profound impacts on the next City D1 rankings: Sweepstakes, Varsity Gold B and Red Varsity B.

The Palisades boys entered their 2nd consecutive Sweepstakes race with a decidedly younger team than last year’s (which was pretty young too!). And, they delivered typically top-tier performances with their front runners - BLAKE SIGWOTH and OWEN LEWICKY - making the City Sub-15 Minute Woodbridge Performances ranking (see below). Teammate ANDREW RAZO ran a 24 second personal best, his 1st in almost 2 years, of 15:41.4 to give clear indications he’ll be in the sub-16 minutes club on Pierce in November and Freshman THEO MAYEDA ran 18 seconds faster than his Great Cow performance 3 weeks ago (his 1st high school race) to earn the top City freshman time of 16:02.01. As great as these performances were, know that, like most City teams, Palisades doesn’t necessarily train for this race and they always improve throughout the season. If their form holds they should have 5 runners break 16 minutes on Pierce in November, for only the 3rd time in City history.

Venice runners PAUL TRANQUILLA and CHARLES SIMON were undoubtedly the City MVP’s of ‘24 Woodbridge. Both broke 15 minutes in the Varsity Gold-B race, a feat that has been done less than 15 times in the history of City cross country, with Paul posting the 4th best City time ever at Woodbridge behind City greats Justin Hazell (State XC Champion), Steve Correa (City XC Champ) and Pablo Rosales (Pierce course record holder).

And on Friday night in the Varsity Red-B race San Pedro showed that they’ll be in the State qualifying hunt with 3 impressive performance by seniors EVAN HADEISHI, CHRISTOPHER FRELIX and JACK BUTTERFIELD. Evan just missed the Top-10 All Time Woodbridge performances ranking (he’s #12) with a ridiculous 1 minute 21 second PR of 14:55.8. Teammate CHRISTOPHER FRELIX ran a 52 second PR of 15:07.2 to rank 7th in LA City so far and JACK BUTTERFIELD ran a 1 min 12 sec PR to rank 11th in LA City.

Here’s how the boys D1 CIty race is shaking out based on Woodbridge performances (REVISED - sorry Birmingham, your score has been corrected):

Here’s how the boys D2 City teams that participated at Woodbridge rank:

The Monroe boys had the 5th fastest City time across all divisions led by SEBASTIAN PEREZ and JORGE MONTENEGRO and just missed averaging sub-16 minutes for their top 5 runners. Santee’s ROLAND BALDERAS and ADRIAN AGUIRRE shined on Friday evening but they’ll need more from their #3-5 to get close to Monroe. Marshall ran without their top runner from ‘23 Gabriel Cabrera (he’s been MIA all season?) but RYE JUNKER worked to fill the void with a big PR 16:23.8. Eagle Rock was registered to run Woodbridge but did not; we’ll see them at Bell-Jeff without their top 2 runners?!

And here’s the girls D2 rankings from Woodbridge

Monroe’s NAYELLY FLORES posted the top D2 girls time on Saturday evening in the Gold Varsity -B race but Santee had more than enough horsepower to take the D2 title, led by senior ANGELES FELICIANO. The Marshall girls only ran 4 girls and Eagle Rock did not run at all.

Last but not least, the D5 Woodbridge rankings for both the boys and girls

Three D5 runners ran under 16:20 at Woodbridge with Community Charter’s DANIEL MARTINEZ leading the way followed closely by Sun Valley’s JOSEPH JUAREZ and ANGEL SOLORIO. Come November is will be these teams’ #5 that will determine which team earns their first City Championship.

Based on Woodbridge results Sun Valley should be able to clinch a City Title in ‘24, their first since 2018, led by seniors GRISELDA ROCA and ADRIANA CHEVEZ who are running way ahead of last year. Kudos to Stella Charter in their 3rd year running City XC; they should have a shot at the top 3 in D5 this year. Central City junior ELLIE PEREZ will be looking at an individual title; she was the top D5 finisher at Woodbridge. This division has opened up a quite a bit with New West Charter now D4 and East Valley without a team this year.

We’ll get a much better idea of how City teams rank in the LA City Section after Bell Jeff this coming Saturday where twenty-six City teams will compete at the new (2nd year) Griffith Park course. Fourteen City teams will compete head-to-head in the boys Doug Speck and girls Varsity Large School races. Stay tuned.

*Scores are calculated based on each City team’s top-5 performances within their CIF division at Woodbridge across all races on Friday and Saturday.

Venice Senior PAUL TRANQUILLA approaches the 2-mile mark in the Varsity Gold-B race. He placed 2nd in the race in 14:29.5 ranking him #4 City All-Time. His 2nd mile in this race was the fastest of any City athlete, 4:47.8.

CHARLES SIMON posted the 5th best City time,14:56.6, ranking him 15th on the All-Time best City Woodbridge performances.

The Palisades Varsity team prepares for their epic performance in the Girls Rated race. The team posted the 2nd best time ever at Woodbridge, 1:30:56.0, with the top 5 averaging 18:11.2 .
(l-r) Daila Harinck, Gabriella Gilyard, Kendal Shaver, Maya Hively, Zoey Morris, Louis Mammen, Eleanor Mammen

DANIEL RAMIREZ was the top City finisher in the Varsity Blue-B race, finishing in 15:09.6. He now ranks as the #4 Granada Hills 3-miler all time!

In only her 2nd high school race freshman MAYA HIVELY posted the 2nd best City time at Woodbridge to lead the Palisades girls to a 9th place finish in the Rated race.

Junior ETHAN BAROK just missed the Taft school 3-mile record by 1.5 seconds with his 15:16.5 performance in the Varsity Blue-B race at Woodbridge on Saturday evening.

To say that Woodbridge is getting more competitive is an understatement. Never mind the absurdness of two boys sprinting for a 13:30 finish or Riley Blade posting a 15:20.3 3-mile high school record. Those are outliers that belie statistics. Just 7 years ago ECR’s Justin Hazell won the Sweepstakes race in 13:59.5; that performance on Saturday evening would have placed him no better than 14th. And Paul Tranquilla’s 2nd place performance of 14:29.7 in the Gold Varsity -B race on Saturday? That would have placed him 9th in the 2009 Sweepstakes race. The good news is that City athletes have embraced this trend and in 2024 the 19 schools and 444 athletes that participated at Woodbridge set some City standards for the record books:

CITY BOYS-2024

Top-5 Average Time: 16:51.9 (Best Ever, by a lot!)
Sub-15 Performances: 5 (Most Ever)
Sub-16 Performances: 20 (Tied w/2018 For Most)
Team Time: Palisades, 15:20.3 (4th best ever)

CITY GIRLS-2024

Sub-18 Performances: 5 (Most Ever)
Sub-19 Performances: 10 (2nd to 2018)

Here are the numbers for the last 9 years (there was no Woodbridge Invite in 2020 due to COVID):

Saturday Recap

PENELOPE SENELICK sets City Record*

Venice freshman PENELOPE SENELICK crushed the girls City 3-mile record with a 15:51.1 performance at Woodbridge on Saturday evening. Here’s the Top-10 All Time Woodbridge performances by City girls:

*Minor error in timekeeping as Penelope Senelick lost her bib and her bib was picked up by another runner who crossed the finish line during the Boys Gold Varsity A race. So no record for Penelope! :)

Here is the “OFFICIAL” Top-10 All Time Woodbridge performances by City girls:

And, here is a list of City runners that have broken 15 minutes in the 43-year history of Woodbridge, with the 2024 additions highlighted:

Congratulations to PAUL TRANQUILLA, BLAKE SIGWORTH, OWEN LEWICKY, EVAN HADEISHI, and CHARLES SIMON for some truly superlative performances!

Here are the City Top-10 BOYS performances for ‘24 Woodbridge:

Here are the City Top-10 GIRLS performances for ‘24 Woodbridge:

Some big City performances on Friday evening particularly in the boys races. Santee senior ROLANDO BALDERAS led from start to finish in the Red-Senior race to win comfortably in 15:05.4. With any competition this was easily a sub-15 performance. Forty-eight minutes later EVAN HEDEISHI led an impressive San Pedro team with a masterful individual performance, staying within striking distance of the leaders for 2.5 miles and then surging to take the lead and win in the last 400 meters in 14:55.8. In the same race teammates CHRISTOPHER FRELIX placed 5th in 15:07.2 and JACK BUTTERFIELD placed 15th in 15:21.2. These are minute+ PR’s for these runners! Santee’s ADRIAN AGUIRRE is the only sophomore to make the City Top-10 list and this was due to a phenomenal 2nd place finish in the Red-Sophomore race in a time of 15:35.7.
And while those performances are noteworthy, the biggest surprises came out of D5. In the fastest race on Friday evening, Community Charter DANIEL MARTINEZ posted a 16:03.7 in the White-Varsity, the 6th best City time and the top D5 time. Earlier in the evening in the White Senior race, Sun Valley senior JOSEPH JUAREZ and junior ANGELO SOLARIO placed 7th and 8th with times of 16:07.4 and 16:22.9. These times are 1 1/2 minutes ahead of their best times last year and comparable to D1/D2 performances, a result of a major increase in mileage this year (a common them for all of these runners). DEMITRI HERNANDEZ led the Mendez boys to a team win in the WHite Senior race; DemitrI finished in 10th in 16:22.9 and is #10 in the City Top-10. Well done!

Here are the City Top-10 boys performances:

Friday Evening Recap

Santee senior ANGELES FELICIANO led the girls on Friday evening with the top City time of 19:20.6 and an 8th place finish in the Red-Senior/Junior race. Though not up to last year’s effort a solid performance considering she’s still not quite 100%. Angeles led a strong Santee contingency that had 3 of her teammates in the Friday City Top-10. Esteban Torres’ s SAMANTHA AVILA was the big surprise Friday evening, posting a 19:20.7 in the White-Junior/Senior race and only missing the top City time by .1 second. Samantha has set herself up to be a legitimate top-5 contender in D2. EMILY GURROLA had the top San Pedro performance, an almost 2-minute PR of 19:24.5 . Two other San Pedro runners made Friday’s Top 10 as well. Mendez senior Magaly Garcia-Sanchez posted the #3 D2 time this year, a 21:08.5 effort that ranks her 7th in Friday City performances. and junior Elle Perez from Central City Value posted the top LA City D5 time of 21:26.8.

Here are the City Top-10 girls performances:

WOODBRIDGE PREVIEW

Woodbridge is a bell-weather event in the XC season for most southern California teams and the first opportunity for LACXC.com to refine predictions for the the LA City Section post season. This year there’s some added interest in the D1 boys as a result of the addition of a 3rd State qualifier for this division. So we’ll be paying particular attention to San Pedro, Venice, Granada Hills and Taft to see who has the edge at this point in the season and might join Palisades as the #2 and #3 in November.

Twenty City teams will be competing this weekend, down slightly from the 23 teams that ran in 2023. Notably missing this year is D1 El Camino Real, D2 Bravo Medical, D3 Verdugo Hills and D4 New West. This year introduces another course change, the 3rd in four years, that should alleviate some of the issues with the start in previous years at The Great Park but looks to also introduce additional and tighter turns in the 1st mile. See course map here. Weather forecasts look perfect for both days and impact from the Airport Fire is negligible.

Friday

Eight City teams are registered for Friday night including Central City Value Community, Charter Early College, Esteban Torres, Mendez, San Pedro, Santee, Stella Charter and Sun Valley. Top billing on Friday goes to the Varsity Red-B races that have some of City’s best in San Pedro and Santee going head-to-head. For the boys, San Pedro’s Christopher Frelix will be looking at a sub 15:20 performance, based on his result at the Laguna Hills Invite last week, which should place him in the top 3 in the Varsity Red-B race and in a decent position to win. Teammate Evan Hedeishi might be looking at something closer to 15 minutes flat and the win IF he hasn’t had any injuries or illness - he missed the Laguna Hills race on Sept. 14th but is scheduled to run at Woodbridge. Santee’s Roland Balderas should be close behind Frelix and Hedeishi (if he runs the Varsity race) in the neighborhood of 15:30. If these 3 run to their potential they can all place in the top 5 in the Varsity Red-B race. If Roland opts to run in the Senior Red race he’ll win going away! Also, we’ll be checking in on Santee sophomore Adrian Aquirre; he should be looking at a sub-16 min (conservative) and a win if he decides to run the Sophomore Red race.
On the girls side Santee’s Angeles Feliciano should break 19 minutes and rank as the top City runner and should get the win in the Junior/Senior Red race at 6:40. San Pedro’s Emily Gurrola has started 2024 on a tear, running Laguna Hills 2 min 45 seconds faster than last year. She’ll be looking to break 20 minutes to lead the Pirate women in the Varsity Red-B race at 9:52. along with teammate Rita Rizor.
In other races on Friday night, D3 top returner Demitri Hernandez (Mendez) and D5 stand-out Daniel Martinez (Community Charter) are running in the Senior White race at 6:52 and Michael Juarez Estrada (Mendez) will be running in the Junior White race at 6:28. D5 City runner-up Ellie Perez (Central City Values) and D2 standout Samantha Avila (Esteban Torres) will be running in the Senior/Junior White race at 8:04 as will top D3 runner Magaly Garcia-Sanchez (Mendez).

Saturday

Twelve City teams are registered in Saturday races at Woodbridge including Birmingham, Carson, Cleveland, Eagle Rock, Garfield, Granada Hills, Hamilton, Marshall, Monroe, Palisades Charter, Taft, and Venice. For the 2nd year in a row the Palisades boys will be running in the Sweepstakes race. Their top 3 of Blake Sigworth, Zachary Cohen and Owen Lewicky will be leading the pack targeting sub-15 minute performances. Palisades will have a sophomore and 2 freshman running in the Championship racel - Mayo Holt (so), Sebastian Funk and Theo Mayeda - who will all be looking to run mid 15’s as well as junior Andrew Razo who should be right there as well. Lots of new faces on the Pali boys team so this will be interesting! Birmingham, Cleveland and Granada Hills compete in the Varsity Blue-B race at 7:46 so we’ll see some of City’s top talent in Alexis Huerta (Birmingham), Nathaniel Melgoza (Cleveland), and Daniel Ramirez (Granada Hills) battle it out for City bragging rights, assuming they all run the Varsity race. All of these boys should be under 15:30. Venice’s Paul Tranquilla will be going for the win and a sub-14:50 performance in the Varsity Gold-B race at 8:22. We’ll also get a chance to see a follow-up to teammate Charles Simon’s impressive run at Rosemead. They’ll both be up against a slew of City runners from Hamilton, Marshall and Monroe. Look for a D2 match-up in this race between Monroe’s Jorge Montenegro and Sebastian Perez and Marshall’s Gabriel Cabrera and Bao Le. Taft’s Ethan Barok and Hunter Bennett run in the Varsity Blue-B race at 7:46 and will be closing in on 15:40. Eagle Rock’s top boys Lucio Hightower Rojas and Oliver Barr run in the Senior Gold race at 5:34. Both of these athletes had phenomenal ‘23 seasons but are MIA so far in ‘24.

The Palisades girls run in the Rated race at 8:54 led by D1 City Champion Zoey Morris who should run sub-18 minutes. Not far behind are Lulu Mammen and freshman Maya Hively targeting low 18’s. The Varsity Blue-B race at 8:34 pits Granada Hills against City rival Cleveland in possibly the most exciting City matchup at Woodbridge. Granada Hills is led by West Valley Champion Sammy Pacheco and teammate Sophia Battle who has taken her game next level this year;Sammy will be looking to break 18 and Sophia should be angeling for a low 18-minute performance. We have an idea on what the Granada girls can do but the Cleveland team has been reserved in their performances so far this year so Woodbridge will be LACXC.com’s first chance to see Meztli Velasquez, Lucy Culliton (who may be out due to injury), Eleanor Culliton and Yana Sen in a legitimate race effort. Really looking forward to this race! We’d love to see Taft in the race with Granada and Cleveland but they’re running in the Varsity Blue-A race at 8:10. Taft senior Kennedy Brannon ran over 2 minutes faster in the West Valley Cluster #1 than a year ago so she’ll be targeting a big Woodbridge PR in the low 19 minutes with sophomore Isabella Sakalowsky looking at mid 19’s along with teammate Kayla Tjenalooi. Once the results are in for these 2 races and LACXC.com has a chance to compile and analyze, the road to the City Championship for D1 girls should be a lot clearer. In other races, top ranked D1 athlete Kelia Narnanjo Champion (Garfield) will look to break 19 minutes in the Varsity Blue-A race at 8:10. Venice’s Jade Flores and Ella Senelick compete in the Junior/Senior gold race at 6:46 along with Monroe’s Nayelly Flores who will be in her 1st XC race as a senior. And, Hamilton’s Maria Cruz Santiago runs in the Varsity Gold-B race at 7:34.

Rosemead Invite

September 14th, 2024

LACXC.com didn’t make it to Rosemead last night so no pictures but here are the top 10 City performances:

It’s fair to say that Paul Tranquilla owns the Rosemead Invitational. Since his sophomore year, he’s won every Rosemead race he’s entered and this year he posted the best time on the night, 14:38.7. And, that was the most comfortable 14:38 I’ve seen in a while based on the available video. Definitely looking forward to seeing what Paul can do at Woodbridge. Teammate Charles Simon also shined with a strong finish and 40 second PR to place 6th in the race. Granada’s Daniel Ramirez had a break-out performance, crushing his PR by 1 min 26 sec. Loved his confidence to take the lead on the first mile; with minor adjustments in pacing on the 1st and 3rd mile this was a sub-15 performance. Well done! Santee’s Roland Balderas looks to be the man to beat in D2 after last night’s performance. Teammate Adrian Aguirre had an inspired race to place 5th in the sophomore race in 15:45; a 1 min 20 sec PR. Garfield junior Ruben Mendoza also made huge improvements with a 1 min 37 sec PR of 16:17.3 .

Boys Varsity Race Courtesy of HDRunners

Paul Tranquilla highlight reel!
Sorry about the video quality.

Sammy Pacheco raced 2 times in 3 days and won both races convincingly. Last night was her 2nd consecutive win at Rosemead and her time of 18:03.8 puts Sammy at top of the LA City rankings. But none of this should come as a surprise to anyone. The big surprise is teammate Sophia Battle who’s 3rd place finish in the junior race was a 1 min 39 sec PR. A phenomenal performance and proof positive of the benefits of a solid summer program. Garfield’s Kelia Naranjo-Champion looks to be back in form with an early season PR of 18:55.4. That’s over a minute off her time at Rosemead last year. Venice senior Jade Flores improved by 1 min 29 sec to post the 7th best City time, 19:36.4. Trinidad Montenegro was the top City freshman placing 2nd in 19:54.6.

West Valley Cluster #1

Pierce College - Sept. 12th, 2024

First Time Ever! Taft Charter’s ‘24 XC squad arrived at Pierce College 60-plus strong and in unofficial scoring took both the girls and boys varsity races. Our statistician's are combing the record books but this may be a first for Taft in the 3-mile era that both the boys and girls varsity teams have won a West Valley XC meet!

Here are the unofficial results based on each team’s coaches contributions. Extra Mile Timing was not used for this meet (need to do something about that) so Granada Hills provided hand-timing support.

Team Results

On a warm day that had temperatures peaking at 82 degrees SAMMY PACHECO dominated the girls varsity winning in 18:56 while Birmingham’s ALEXIS HUERTA won the boys varsity in 16:05. All 5 of Taft’s varsity girls ran faster than their top girl at last year’s Cluster #1 to help the Toreadors in their historic win with their top 4 breaking 21 minutes. Senior KENNEDY BRANNON led Taft with a 2nd place finish in the girls varsity race in 19:47, Cleveland’s MEZTLI VELAZQUEZ placed 3rd in 20:11, and Taft sophomore ISABELLA SAKALOWSKY posted a 44-second Pierce PR to place 4th in 20:24. SCARLETT HARRIS was the top El Camino Real finisher placing 5th in 20:29 and YESENIA VALDEZ was Birmingham’s top finisher placing 8th in 21:00. Juniors ETHAN BAROK and HUNTER BENNETT placed 2nd and 3rd in 16:27 and 16:38 to lead Taft in the boys varsity race. Birmingham sophomore DANIEL SALAZAR had a big race finishing in 4th in 16:44, a 31-second PR on Pierce and a very happy INDIE HYMAN (Taft) placed 5th in 17:11, a 25-seconds Pierce PR. RYAN SLOAN was the top finisher for ECR placing 13th in 17:31.0.

Individual Results

Here are the top 10 finishers in the boys and girls varsity races. PPR indicates a Pierce personal record.

Sammy Pacheco takes a big lead on the 1st pass through the switchbacks at the inaugural Pierce XC Meet of 2024. She won the varsity girls race in a time of 18:56.0.

With 800m to go ALEXIS HUERTA holds a big lead in the boys varsity race which he kept to the finish to win in 16:05.0.

Taft’s Varsity Girls
(l-r) Isabella Sakalowsky, Kayla Tjenalooi,
Shannon Fabro, Sage Kodama, Alexandra Chase,
Kennedy Brannon, Jenny Nava

Taft’s Varsity Boys
(l-r) Gabe Perez, Jonah Simkin, Indie Hyman,
Hunter Bennett, Ethan Barok, Angel, Daniel Tochner

Mathew de la Cruz ran a dominant race to take 1st place in the boys JV rcontest in a time of 17:51.0, a 12-second Pierce PR for the Granada senior.

Scarlett Harris leads a chase pack on the switchbacks. She placed 5th in a time of 20:29 to lead ECR.

Granada senior DANIEL RAMIREZ and Cleveland junior NATHANIEL MELGOZA race to the finish. Both posted a time of 17:20.0 with Ramirez getting the nod for 6th place. Both runners will likely show faster times this Saturday at the Rosemead Invitational.

Birmingham Junior YESENIA VALDEZ shaved
3 minutes 25 seconds off her previous
Pierce PR to place 8th in 21:00.0.

ECR’s Ryan Slohn leads a pack at the 1-kilometer mark. He had ECR’s top time placing 13th in 17:31.0. Taft’s Jonah Simkin (left) and Daniel Tochner (right) are close behind.

Summer Training Camps

Thanks to the coaches, athletes and parents who made the commitment to an amazing event and for allowing lacxc.com to participate. The impact of high-altitude training may be short-lived but the memories will last a life time!

West Valley Bandits - Mammoth Mountain

July 30th - 31st, 2024

West Valley Runners were out en force at Convict Lake. Over 30 athletes made it up to Mammoth where the club does it “old school” in tents and sleeping bags.

(l-r) Kennedy Brannon, Aleina Imai, Sage Kodoma,
Anael Farkash, Alexandra Chase,
Kayla Tjenalooi, Keila Sakata

(l-r) Indie Hyman, Gabe Perez, Angel Rodriguez,
Ethan Barok, Hunter Bennett,
Carson Nguyen, Indie Hyman

Bottom: Alexandra Chase, Anael Farkash, Kayla Tjenalooi
Middle: Shannon Fabro, Aleina Imai, Kennedy Brannon, Keila Sakata
Top: Sage Kodoma

Ethan Barok and Hunter Bennet
stride out at Convict Lake

Seniors Kennedy Brannon and Kayla Tjenalooi
lead out a training run at ‘Lil Smokey

Instagram reel on lacxcnews

Mammoth Mountain - Palisades Charter

July 26th, 2024

Are the ‘24 Pali Girls the Best City Team Ever?

(l-r) Ella GIlyard, Louisa Mammen, Maya Bhasin,
Zoey Morris, Daila Harinck,
Maribel Henderson-MacLennan, Molly Liberman

Pali Boys Looking for 4-Peat
(l-r) Lajus Collins, Mako Holt, Zachary Cohen, Blake Sigworth, Andrew Razo, Jackson Taylor, Owen Lewicky

LULU MAMMEN puts the finishes touches on a strong summer program in hopes
of an epic junior year. Sub-18 miunutes?

Sophomore MAKO HOLT showing perfect form, could be a game changer for Pali this fall.

Mr. and Miss Congeniality,
LAJUS COLLINS and MAYA BHASIN,
still smiling after a 9-mile tempo run at 8,000 ft!

Instagram reel on lacxcnews

Never mind ‘double-thresholds’, that’s 2023! The Pali boys practice a ‘crouch-Lunge-Pounce’ starting technique modeled after the worlds fiercest apex predators.

Coaches Corner

CROUCH

LUNGE

POUNCE

Here’s the full sequence:

Stay tuned for its debut at Woodbridge :)

2024 PRESEASON POWER RANKING

Ranking Narratives - Girls

Girls Division 1 (posted Mon, July 8th)

Girls Division 2 (posted Tue, July 9th)

Girls Division 3 (Posted Wed, July 10th)

Girls Division 4 (Posted Thu, July 11th)

Girls Division 5 (Posted Fri, July 12th)

Ranking Narratives - Boys

Boys Division 1 (posted Mon, July 15th)

Boys Division 2 (posted Tue, July 16th)

Boys Division 3 (Posted Wed, July 17th)

Boys Division 4 (Posted Thu, July 18th)

Boys Division 5 (Posted Fri, July 19th)

BOYS - DIVISION 1

#1 PALISADES CHARTER
The Dolphins lose their #1 and #3 from last year but if anyone is hoping there is a chink in the Palisades armor think again. They bring back some of the best runners in City in juniors BLAKE SIGWORTH and ZAC COHEN and senior OWEN LEWICKY. Each of these 3 runners could win the championship and has the potential to run 15 minutes on Pierce. ANDREW RAZO and BRIAN WELSH will likely contend for Palisades top 5 and both are capable of running under 16 minutes at the championship. Razo’s PR on Pierce is 16:05.3 as a freshman and he posted a 4:33.1 in the 1,600m this spring. Welsh didn’t run XC last year but may be one of Palisades most talented runners. In his 1st race as a freshman 2 years ago he placed 12th at the Cerritos Great Cow Run in 16:01.5; he was the top freshman in the race and the #2 Palisades finisher. Senior BEN BARNETT and junior ROLAND BECKING should fill out the roster but they will likely need to fight for those positions. There is a wave of talent coming into the program this year (again!) with times rivaling those of the freshman class of ’22 including 4 boys that have run sub 5-min 1,600m in 8th grade. Sorry folks, the Palisades juggernaut is going to continue for the foreseeable future.

Update: Brian Welsh and Ben Barnett look doubtful for the ‘24 XC season. No change in rankings but this does make a significant dent in Palisades’ depth.

Junior Zac Cohen splits his time between running and tennis but may be the top talent in City. He’ll be looking for a top 5 finish this fall.

#2 SAN PEDRO
San Pedro is looking for a State bid for the 1st time since their 2019 championship season and has a fair shot of it if they can continue the progress they’ve made over the last year. But the Championship race against Venice will be tight, razor thin really, with several of our virtual race models going to the “6th man” to decide the score. Their top 3 runners are all capable of going sub-16 at Pierce, led by EVAN HADEISHI who had a breakout track season this spring (4:20.15 1,600m PR) and will be looking to improve markedly on his Pierce PR from last year. He’ll need to be be in the low 15’s to give the Pirates a chance. CHRISTOPHER FRELIX is the top returner from last year and he will surely be looking for a sub 15:30 after breaking 16 last year as a junior. JACK BUTTERFIELD may be the “X” factor for San Pedro. He had a phenomenal junior year in track and should be targeting sub 16 minutes. The pirates will need a 4th and 5th that can run sub 17 minutes at the Championship, and probably closer to 16:30 if they want to secure 2nd place. Junior CAMILO VISESSIRI-PETITE looks to be a likely candidates and sophomore ZACHARY MCGRATH showed some potential in his freshman year. Senior ETHAN DURAN, who ran his 1st HS track this spring and will be running his 1st XC season as a senior shows promise as well. This is a team that historically nails it at City Finals.

Christopher Frelix is San Pedro’s top returner from ‘23. His Pirates will be in a down-to-the-wire battle for a 2nd place State qualifier against Venice.

#3 VENICE
The Gondoliers are led by City standout PAUL TRANQUILLA who’s coming off another spectacular track season (4:16.78 1,600m and 1:55.26 800m). He’ll be looking to improve on his Pierce PR of 16:03.7 that he ran 2 years ago as a sophomore - a full minute off of what he is capable of running on Pierce - and making amends for a disappointing XC post season last year! Senior CHARLES SIMON and junior ALEXANDER DU should fill out the top 3; both are capable of a sub-16 Pierce. Charles ran a 9:59.12 3,200m as a sophomore and this past spring ran a 4:29.31 1,600m; both of these are top tier grade-level performances. The ’24 XC season will only be his 2nd so looking for big things from SIMON. DU shows better in XC and is going into his 3rd year. Like Alexander he should be making the jump to run with the front pack. Senior MILO POPP IV and junior RYAN PERRELLA complete the top five. They drop off significantly after these 5 so any injuries are going to be impactful.

The race for 2nd place State qualifier will be extremely close and Venice will need to 1) keep healthy, 2) run well on Pierce, AND 3) save their best for the Finals, if they hope to take down San Pedro. This team has the potential to upset!

By the way, this story plays out much differently if LONDON WEBSTER returns to the team.

Paul Tranquilla and Venice will be looking for vindication this year after a disappointing City Final last year.

#4 GRANADA HILLS
Junior JOAQUIN ORTEGA-TOMASELLI and senior DANIEL RAMIREZ will lead one of the youngest Highlander teams in recent history into the ’24 XC season. Joaquin nearly broke 16 minutes 3 times as a sophomore, an epic 2-week romp that is nearly unmatched in recent City lore; I can count on one hand the number of sophomores that have accomplished that! And Daniel had an absolutely phenomenal track season crushing his 800m and 1,600m PR’s by 15 and 30 seconds from his sophomore year. Look for big performances from both of these athletes. If Granada has any notion of getting to State though they’ll need 3 other runners that can run sub 16:20 on Championship day. The good news is they have a plethora of possible candidates including seniors DAVID PRIEM, HARPRAHKASH SINGH, and CHRISTOPHER KAJIWARA; Juniors SHIA AUBE, JAYDEN OSTERHAUS-FLORES , VICTOR LUGO and HENRY GONZLES; and sophomore AIDEN MTAUL BARRIOS. All are contenders and have shown an ability to evolve into runners capable of helping Granada on the big day. HARPRAHKASH SINGH and CHRISTOPHER KAJIWARA in particular had very good track seasons this spring which should translate into big performances in XC this year if the progress continues. Granada also draws from a huge student body – the largest in LA City – as well as several local clubs, so new and unknown talent is always a factor. That said, in the last 10 years only 1 freshman boy has run in the Varsity City Championship for Granada – namely JOAQUIN ORTEGA-TOMASELLI - but on a relatively inexperienced team such as this team it’s a possibility.

The Highlanders are clearly the wild card for the state bid in 2024. They have lots of potential and depth and in City those are good cards to hold, maybe the best. In the final analysis, there is a 12-point difference encompassing a 38-second deficit to catch #2 San Pedro.

Joaquin Ortega-Tomaselli just missed breaking 16 minutes last year. He’s Granada’s top returner and will be looking for a top-5 finish in November.

#5 TAFT
For the 1st time in 35 years Taft has 2 runners capable of breaking 16 minutes on Pierce, and they’re just juniors. ETHAN BAROK and HUNTER BENNETT come into the 2024 XC season with impressive grade-level credentials and will be looking to take it to the next level this fall. The Taft record of 15:15.0 set by Brian Godsey (current Taft AD) in 1990 may not be in jeopardy this year but their current coach Mario Castillo’s PR of 15:50.0 certainly is as both of these runners should be looking at sub 15:30 in November. CARSON NGUYYN, GABRIEL PEREZ, JONAH SIMKIN and INDIE HYMAN will fight it out for the top 5. They should all be looking at sub 16:30 times come November. Look for PARSA SHAHAMIRI and ANGEL RODRIGUEZ to make a run at varsity as well.

Taft has come a long way since their 12th place finish back in 2018. With the exception of last year when a very young team imploded at City Finals the Toreadors under coach Mario Castillo have incrementally worked their way up the D1 standings. They need another runner that can go under 16 minutes to make a run at 2nd place at Finals but if any of the runners listed above can breakout similar to BAROK or BENNETT they should be able to move up into the top 3; a feat they haven’t accomplished in the 3-mile era.

Ethan Barok had a stellar sophomore track season that he’ll hope to leverage into a successful ‘24 XC post season.

Division 1 Best of the Rest . . .
Banning makes a big move up in 2024 to 6th place. They’re not on most people’s radar because they didn’t run post-season at Pierce last year but based on converted Peck Park times the team was definitely talented enough to qualify and have 5 of their top 7 back in ‘24. Th Pilots are led by seniors CESAR FLORES and GEOVANNY QUIJADA and should have 3 runners comfortable under 16:30 and 2 under 17 minutes at Pierce.

Birmingham is ranked #7 but look for them to move up to #6 after the 1st couple of races. Junior ALEXIS HUERTA continues to impress and will be looking for a sub-16 after running 9:58 this spring in the 3,200m as a sophomore. Sophomore DANIEL SALAZAR has shown promise breaking 17 minutes as a freshman and winning the frosh/soph West Valley 3,200m this spring and senior DEVEN SZYMCZAK should be able to run mid 16’s. The Patriots need another runner, or two, that can break 17 minutes to be in the conversation for top 5.

El Camino Real could rank as high as 5th or as low as 14th depending on who decides to run this fall. Of their top 5 potential returning athletes from the ’23 XC season only one ran a 1,600m or 3,200m this spring. Their #2 and #3 don’t appear to have run at all. BUT, if they get JOHN MATASSA, RYAN SLOHN and DEREK SMITH back running consistently this summer they can be formidable. CAMERON PYNE took a minute off his 3,200m PR this spring and should be looking for a sub-17 on Pierce in November.

Cleveland reached a high-water mark last year, placing 3rd at City Finals, the teams highest finish in the 3-mile era (since 1976) . Their top 3 from that team have graduated so this fall a much younger team will focus on progress and rebuilding in hopes that 2025 can return the team to glory. The Cavaliers have a plethora of young talent starting with junior NATHANIEL MELGOZA, who bears more than a passing resemblance to former Cleveland great Joseph Vargas, both in looks and talent. MELGOZA showed big improvements last fall and continued to impress this spring with a 4:31.87 1,600m as a sophomore. Senior KEVIN PARK is the #2 returner from last year but he may be challenged by senior SEBASTIAN ALARCON who has shown nice progress in XC the last 3 years and had some impressive 3,200m races this spring. Two sophomores, NOAH MIRA and LUKE NGUYEN, also showed promise this spring and hopefully will continue running in the fall.

Freemont brings a very experienced team into the fall XC season including 4 seniors in their top 5 led by ZOLIO PEREZ and GERARDO NUNEZ-ESPINO; both should looking at sub-16:30 on Pierce.

South East senior Arman Vasquez will be looking for gold in ‘24 after his 5th place finish last year at City Finals.

Hunter Bennett had an exceptional sophomore year. He’ll help Taft to one of their best team placings at the City Championships in November.

Junior Alexis Huerta leads a resurgent Birmingham team.

Junior Nathanial Melgoza moves into the #1 position at Cleveland after a standout sophomore year.

Mateo Cedillo posted the top 9th-grade Pierce time last fall. He leads a Kennedy team that is looking to qualify for the D1 City Championship in ‘24.

‘The Drive’

Is dedicated to LA City’s high school distance running community

The goal is to evangelize exceptional teams and athletes with high quality, curated content and editorial perspectives in an online periodic publication.

Each volume will include a ‘Special’ section, as well as Athletes of the Week/Month, ‘The Week in Pictures’ including a ‘Picture of the Week’, ‘The Numbers’, and ‘Heard on the Trail’.

ENJOY!

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