CIF-SS Rankings (10-8)

October 8, 2012   ·   3 Comments

CIF-SOUTHERN SECTION CROSS-COUNTRY
DIVISIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
Released October 8, 2012
By Rich Gonzalez 
Editor, PrepCalTrack

NOTES: Many squads were missing athletes over the weekend due to college testing.  This is taken into account in the new rankings, with prior data also considered in the lates composite assessment. … Any squad ranked among the top 13 in its division in two of the last four rankings (which start on Oct. 15) will be invited to compete at the CIF-SS Prelims as an at-large entry if it does not automatically qualify from its league.

DIVISION 1 BOYS
1. Arcadia
2. Vista Murrieta
3. California
4. Trabuco Hills
5. Long Beach Poly
6. Rancho Cucamonga
7. Great Oak
8. Dana Hills
9. El Toro
10. Crescenta Valley
11. Roosevelt
12. Warren
13. M.L. King
Notes: There’s definite daylight between the top two teams and the rest. Arcadia had a decent gap on #2 Vista Murrieta early on, but the Broncos looked solid at Inland Empire in drawing closer to #1… Trabuco Hills has been sporting a noticeable gap from its #4 man to its #5, but then #4 struggled a tad at Clovis, that opened the door for an improving California HS lineup to move right in. If Trabuco Hills returns to form, they have the edge… Long Beach Poly has vowed to “go to the well” less this regular season in hopes of timing its peak just right in 2012… Top runner Austin Esposito had an off day for Rancho Cucamonga at the Inland Empire Challenge, but veteran Mat Holton was a nice surprise in leading the Cougars… Great Oak hasn’t quite come together as expected. Even it’s trip to Arizona for the Desert Twilight meet was not an eye popper. Still, they should be fine… Dana Hills was noticeably running “within itself” once again at Clovis. For now, they are a bit better than their times indicate, yet not quite as good as its coaches would like at this point…  One coach earlier this month said something to the effect that El Toro was not as good as usual this year. We had to bite our lip when hearing that. The Chargers showed at Clovis that naysayers can scrap the eulogy…. Crescenta Valley temporarily put a crimp in our rankings when they beat Arcadia head-on in the Pacific League cluster meet, but we’ve had enough overall data to justifiably re-set their position. That said, the Falcons are easily the most improved team in State Division I this fall… One unranked team making a little bit of a move of late is Simi Valley.

DIVISION 2 BOYS
1. Loyola
2. Dos Pueblos
3. Saugus
4. Glendora
5. Redondo Union
6. Ayala
7. Golden Valley
8. West Torrance
9. Peninsula
10. Arroyo Grande
11. Beaumont
12. Canyon-Ana.
13. Westlake
Note: We found a stats error after the poll was released which would have placed Tesoro at #12 and moved Canyon-Ana. down to #13.
Notes:  Dos Pueblos assumed the top spot after several early strong showings, but Loyola established the upper hand with a great showing at the Bell-Jeff Invitational, affirming a great three-team showdown (along with Saugus) for the title. Although our data projected Loyola with a near 40-point advantage over Dos Pueblos in a 16-team merge of top Division 2 programs, that was misleading — Those 39 points only a amounted to a few seconds of spacing between the two team’s #2, #3 and #4 scorers. Dos Pueblos improved at Clovis and has sheared the gap to Loyola to less than 20 points… Anyone overlooking Saugus? That would be a huge mistake. The key to their fortunes should be #2 man Ornelas…. It looks like Glendora’s roster is still not at 100 percent, but the Tartans enjoyed a superb step-up performance at Clovis… Redondo Union has been up and down in the rankings (they opened the season at #3 and fell as low as #7, but began to show its potential in a non-sweeps race at Clovis. They are now showing about as well as we expected; it’s just that Saugus and Glendora have exceeded our forecasts and passed them for now… Golden Valley was without a key performer at Clovis in Brendan Tinoco, who was taking a collegiate proficiency exam. Plug him into the results and GV continues to have a solid season thus far. The group treks to Central Park for the big Foothill League meet this Thursday and Brendan will be back in the lineup… Arroyo Grande was without two top performers at Clovis and one of those same top three at Stanford. Expect them to make noise in November… Based on data from returnees from 2011, we expect that Beaumont is still harboring plenty of upside… Nice to see Canyon of Anaheim pop into the rankings with Austin Goins as a Grade 1 frontrunner for the Comanches.

DIVISION 3 BOYS
1. Palos Verdes
2. St. John Bosco
3. Brea Olinda
4. Paso Robles
5. Oak Park
6. Cathedral
7. Jurupa Hills
8. Esperanza
9. Rubidoux
10. Northwood
11. Corona del Mar
12. Laguna Hills
13. Covina
Notes: Palos Verdes and St. John Bosco continue to progress with every outing, setting up highly anticipated clashes come postseason. The top-ranked Sea Kings hold a bit of an advantage in terms of experience and that could be the difference… Brea Olinda has been someone quiet lately. Look for that to change at this weekend’s Orange County Championships, where we get out first good look in a while at frosh phenom Austin Tamagno… We had Paso Robles ranked tenth in preseason, then lost sight of them for a while. They came out of hiding in a big way at Stanford, then looked solid again at Clovis… Oak Park was playing it easy in the early going, but the program sparkled at the Clovis Invitational, drawing ever closer to its preseason #4 ranking… Cathedral was missing four varsity regulars at Clovis, explaining its soft placing… As Esperanza assistant coach essentially guaranteed the unranked Aztecs would eventually surface.  Touche´. Esperanza did so in impressing on the state meet course over the weekend… Teams 8 through 16 are all very close together when at full strength.

DIVISION 4 BOYS
1. Fillmore
2. Don Bosco
3. Salesian
4. Crean Lutheran
5. Big Bear
6. Laguna Beach
7. Crespi
8. Santa Ynez
9. JSerra
10. Twentynine Palms
11. Harvard/Westlake
12. Morro Bay
13. Maranatha
Notes: Is there a bigger title favorite in any of the ten divisions that Fillmore? We don’t think so. This group is “money” in the last 2,000 meters of its races… The DeAnza League could make a big impression at the CIF-SS Finals, with Twentynine Palms reverting back to form to challenge Big Bear (often at partial strength) and Yucca Valley rumored to possibly move to a new division (to Division IV, Jay, not Division VI) when the divisions are finalized in two weeks… Some of the leagues with Division IV schools could still do better at submitting their league cluster meet results to us, please.

DIVISION 5 BOYS
1. St. Margaret’s
2. Flintridge Prep
3. Xavier Prep
4. Thacher
5. Chadwick
6. Desert Christian
7. Sage Hill
8. St. Joseph/S.M.
9. Crossroads
10. Woodcrest Christian
11. Webb
12. Pasadena Poly
13. Vasquez
Notes: Results from a pair of mid-season invitationals finally surfaced this weekend regarding Division V schools, which should now help us with future forecasting. St. Margaret’s has been very low key of late. Allowing the two-time defending state champions time to focus on extended training could be bad news for the competition. The squad recently avenged an earlier Academy League loss to Division IV-ranked Crean Lutheran with a 31-35 victory in the rematch… We still contend that Pasadena Poly is much better than they showed at the first Prep League cluster meet. Time will tell.

DIVISION 1 GIRLS
1. Great Oak
2. Simi Valley
3. Yucaipa
4. San Clemente
5. Capistrano Valley
6. Dana Hills
7. Trabuco Hills
8. Arcadia
9. Marina
10. Ventura
11. Long Beach Poly
12. Edison
13. (tie) West Ranch
13. (tie) Temecula Valley
Notes: Great Oak continues to roll along, powering to the Inland Empire Challenge crown last weekend and remaining unbeaten against California competition. It’s getting tougher for someone to break that streak by season’s end… Simi Valley, which opened the season ranked #1, is still without #3 returnee Rachel Vinas and teammate Olivia Rosellini as both are on the comeback trail… San Clemente and Dana Hills nearly fell out of the rankings in recent weeks, although we knew both were very good squads. Both typically opt for ‘conservative’ starts to their seasons. At the recent South Coast League cluster meet, the gloves finally came off and everyone saw how good they are… South Coast League teams are currently #4, #5, #6 and #7 in Division 1… Ventura split its squad at Clovis and will likely play it safe and steady until postseason. Remember, this is a crew that returns all scorers from a team that placed sixth at state last year…. West Ranch has run much better than it did while at full strength over the weekend, but it’s hard to ignore the head-to-head losses when on the state meet course.

DIVISION 2 GIRLS
1. Saugus
2. Canyon-Ana.
3. Redondo Union
4. Tesoro
5. Foothill
6. Mira Costa
7. Golden Valley
8. Woodbridge
9. Serrano
10. Ayala
11. Peninsula
12. Glendora
13. West Torrance
Notes: People should not take the Saugus dynasty’s opening-month success for granted. There are many new faces to the varsity lineup this fall and those newbies are very deserving of respect and praise. The names may change but the level of sacrifice and quality of work ethic sure hasn’t…  The next three teams have all shown the potential to threaten Saugus or, at least, battle for the runner-up plaque. This past weekend, it was Canyon that stepped up best…. Redondo Union looks more powerful this year than projected thanks to super soph Amber Gore joining the team after skipping the sport last fall… Having an outstanding freshman addition sure helped, but Golden Valley remains among the nicer surprises of the division thus far.

DIVISION 3 GIRLS
1. Palos Verdes
2. Bonita
3. Northwood
4. Laguna Hills
5. Granite Hills
6. Corona del Mar
7. San Luis Obispo
8. La Canada
9. Bishop Amat
10. El Dorado
11. Mater Dei
12. Esperanza
13. South Pasadena
Notes: There has been almost no movement in this division the last few weeks. Odd. Sorry, but stay tuned.

DIVISION 4 GIRLS
1. JSerra
2. Paraclete
3. Laguna Beach
4. Notre Dame/S.O.
5. Mayfield
6. El Segundo
7. La Reina
8. Harvard-Westlake
9. Templeton
10. Crean Lutheran
11. Flintridge Sacred Heart
12. Marlborough
13. Oaks Christian
Notes: We need to go back and do some digging on Paraclete to see if and when he goofed on tracking them along the way. Do we have them over-ranked or right on? Give us a few hours to make sure. Mayfield seemed to finally show some spunk in a nice showing at the Central Park Invitational over the weekend…. El Segundo is going to show you something in November. It’s too early at this point…. The hardest spot to rank among the 131 teams listed this week? Clearly its the #13 spot in Division IV. There just hasn’t been enough information on Division IV teams thus far. Perhaps this Thursday at the Rio Hondo League cluster meet, San Marino will help change some of that.

DIVISION 5 GIRLS
1. Thacher
2. Flintridge Prep
3. Xavier Prep
4. Desert Christian
5. St. Joseph/S.M.
6. Vistamar
7. Linfield Christian
8. Chadwick
9. Pasadena Poly
10. Sage Hill
11. Brentwood
12. Crossroads
13. Woodcrest Christian
Notes: Again, almost no movement in this division the last couple of weeks… Crossroads beat a shorthanded Brentwood squad in the Delphic League cluster meet last week, but it was the addition of a key Crossroads runner who was missing at the Brentwood Invitational that prompts their placement into this week’s rankings… A few small-schools league meet results and invitational results came in a few days (and, in some cases, a few weeks) late, causing us to scamper a bit on deadline. Woodcrest Christian appears good for #13,  but with more data on them now, we can check closer. Their position next week will tell the story.

Tags: CIF-SS Rankings