Friday, June 22, 2018

2018 Pre-Season Northern California Top 10 Cross Country Teams (Boys and Girls)

BOYS
1) St. Francis, Mt. View (CCS) Division II
2) Dublin (NCS) Division I
3) Granada (NCS) Division II
4) Bellarmine (CCS) Division I
5) Jesuit (SJS) Division I
6) Amador Valley (NCS) Division I
7) Los Altos (CCS) Division I
8) Sir Francis Drake (NCS) Division IV
9) Homestead (CCS) Division I
10) Campolindo (NCS) Division III

GIRLS
1) Granada (NCS) Division II
2) Davis (SJS) Division I
3) Oakland Tech (OAK) Division I
4) Vista del Lago (SJS) Division III
5) San Ramon Valley (NCS) Division II
6) Amador Valley (NCS) Division I
7) Maria Carillo (NCS) Division III
8) Monta Vista (CCS) Division I
9) Homestead (CCS) Division I
10) Campolindo (NCS) Division III

Feel free to comment below. This is definitely an early view at the upcoming best Cross Country teams in Northern California and it's very possible I could have missed a team or two. If you feel that there are teams that belong on the above lists, please include them below.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

St Francis is a clear #1. Does it work to Dublin’s advantage to move to DI or would it be better to stay DII? Can we get 2 NorCal teams in NXN this year?

Albert Caruana said...

Great Oak is in division 1. They should be the best team in California once again.

Anonymous said...

I don’t see Great Oak on your list. Regardless, Dublin’s move to DI is interesting since it now makes them a clear NorCal favorite in that division but puts them up against the SS powerhouses at State. Good move for them?

The Dude said...

Bruh, Great Oak is in the southern section. Why would they be on a Nor Cal list?

Albert Caruana said...

The Great Oak boys have won the last four state titles in Division I for the boys and I believe have been the best team in California the past four seasons. They will be pre-season #1 again for this coming season and will be a tall task for the Dublin boys to surpass. Moving up to Division I is no advantage to Dublin. Division I is also a much tougher and deeper division.

Anonymous said...

Agreed, GO is in SoCal!

Anonymous said...

Vista Del Lago will be D2. They have 1864 students which is deep into D2. I would say St Francis will easily beat them in D2.

Anonymous said...

It’s not acceptable to predict the D2 winner (if it’s SF) on this site, thank you.

Anonymous said...

Is Jesuits division possibly going to be changed? Is that why it's a question mark?

Albert Caruana said...

SJS divisions are typically posted in August.

Anonymous said...

It still boggles the mind that De La Salle with their all boys student population, and Carondolet with an all girls student pop, amongst other all same sex schools, don't have their enrollment numbers doubled, then placed in an appropriate division. Nice problem to have, 2000 boys to draw from for XC, and be placed in any division other than D1. Whereas mixed sex schools' entire enrollment determines their division. Anyone know why the Sections don't take a "fair" approach to this? Am curious their reasoning.

Coach Ozzie said...

Anon 9:05,

They do. Same sex enrollments are doubled before being factored into their divisions. So De La Salle actually has 1039 students, but that is doubled to 2078 to put them in division 2. This is true for all single gender schools.

Anonymous said...

Coaches, are you taking your teams back to Stanford after the cancellation last year and this likely being the last year for this meet? Only curious because the best thing about the meet is the number of quality teams that make the trip. If the teams are no longer interested, I’ll find another meet to go to this year.

Anonymous said...

CA 5k Returning Teams:

1 St. Francis Mountain View (CC) (CA) 139
1) Colton Colonna 15:26.10 8
2) Juan Pablo Garcia 15:31.30 15
3) Eric Eng 15:37.40 31
4) Daniel Skahill 15:42.40 40
5) Mason Elefant 15:48.80 45
Average Time: 15:37.20 Total Time: 1:18:06.00 1-5 Split: 22.70
6) Aiden Maddison 16:00.30 62
7) Spencer Schwarz 16:28.90 195

2 Great Oak High School (SS) (CA) 285
1) Gabriel Abbes 15:31.30 16
2) Chris Verdugo 15:35.50 24
3) Tyler Tickner 15:40.50 37
4) Ryan Shields 15:54.80 53
5) Cameron Hylton 16:23.00 155
Average Time: 15:49.02 Total Time: 1:19:05.10 1-5 Split: 51.70
6) Grayson Boyce 16:30.20 209
7) Joshua Abrenica 16:46.00 309

3 Dana Hills High School (SS) (CA) 345
1) Caleb Niednagel 15:26.50 9
2) Simon Fuller 15:30.60 14
3) Eddie Wagenseller 15:38.90 34
4) Carrick Denker 16:13.80 113
5) Hayden Stein 16:25.60 175
Average Time: 15:51.08 Total Time: 1:19:15.40 1-5 Split: 59.10
6) Cole Andrew 16:32.60 218
7) Garrett Hough 16:34.60 233

Anonymous said...

If good NorCal teams (SF-MV, Granada,Dublin,etc.) Publicly announce they are going and maybe even strong SoCal teams come up then a lot of teams will come to compete. Stanford was always like an early season Clovis being a 5k and pretty competive team wise so hopefully alot of teams sign up so they dont permanently end the meet.

Anonymous said...

@11:48 Good point about teams announcing where they are going, especially early in the season. Is there a place they can do that, or a list of schools that have already signed up for Stanford so we can get the word out? It would be great to get a few SS teams up here for a Clovis/state preview.

Anonymous said...

Current list of teams registered for Stanford per Athletic.net:
Berkeley
Clovis North
Cupertino
Del Oro
Delta Charter
James Lick
Los Altos
McClatchy
Monte Vista
Newark Memorial
North Monterey County
Parlier
Roseburg
Sage Creek
San Francisco University
St Francis (Mountain View)
St Francis Central Coast Catholic
Vacaville
Weston R

Albert Caruana said...

I am sure most teams that have attended the Stanford Invitational in the past will attend this year as well. If Stanford chooses to discontinue this meet after this coming season then those teams will adjust for the following season.

Albert Caruana said...

Stanford Invitational entries are through ezmeets.com, not athletic.net.

Anonymous said...

I am not going to state my school’s name but we have gone in the past and will not be attending. We will stick with Pacific Tiger or try the Sacramento meet also on a golf course.

Anonymous said...

"2) Davis (SJS) Division I"
That must have been a typo because I know you didn't mean SJS Davis. Possibly Utah?
Davis had a good run, but they will need to rebuild before they get anywhere near their former glory again.

Coach Tim said...

Were I coaching this fall, I would take my team to Stanford. I will suggest to the new coach that they attend. It's a high caliber, divisional meet, full 5k, on grass. It also takes less than a full day and is local, which are both big selling points to parents.

Also, is there evidence that this is "likely the last year for the meet," or is that speculation? Last year's cancellation aside, has there been any trend of decreased attendance?

pmccrystle said...

A few of things regarding the Stanford XC Invite, IMHO: A) Stanford has never said the meet is coming back for only one year. and in fact when asked by me about that, a person connected to the Stanford program said there has been no discussion of discontinuing the meet. B) The list posted here has nothing to do with who is actually going to the meet, because, as Albert posted, the Stanford meet is run through EZMeets...which leads to the situation like we had in track this year where some coaches thought they had registered for a meet only to show up and discover that the meet was using directathletics but they had (erroneously) registered through athletic.net--anyone can list a meet on athletic.net as being on their schedule and the program will allow you to even register!! The EZMeets list has as of this morning at least 14 teams from the SS, 5 from SDS, 12 from SJS, 21 from NCS, 21 from CCS, 6 from CS, 8 from Nevada, 1 each from Wa and Ore, and a handful of 'others' C) Bellarmine will be at Stanford, because the level of competition and the way the race is run are a good preview/dry run for a big meet like States, and the first mile is crazy fast, which also recreates the State meet.

Anonymous said...

Most SJS schools run the Capital Cross instead. No one likes Stanford, they treat the high school kids like crap and it is poorly run.

Albert Caruana said...

As Patrick pointed out, I have not heard that the Stanford Invite was coming back for only one season. That was pure speculation by some people. If Stanford was to discontinue the meet, this would have been the right time to do it after a one year hiatus. Speaking from a division v school perspective, this meet is one of the few that allow us to race other schools our size. It's local and the course is incredibly flat which is a nice break from usual hillier courses.

If there are teams that despise this meet for whatever reason, it's certainly their right to not attend. The meet has never struggled for teams as most divisions usually fill up pretty quickly.

Anonymous said...

I think the argument for Stanford canceling the meet for good after this year goes like this: 1) Stanford is a college and cares more about college racing (for good reason); 2) the level of college racing at their meet has gone down every year for the last 6 years, to the point where Stanford doesn't even run their A team at their home meet; 3) last year's meet was canceled under the flimsiest circumstances; and 4) this year the PAC 12 conference meet will be at Stanford, creating a situation where the other PAC 12 teams want to preview the coarse - in subsequent years there is no reason to run the coarse and therefore the meet. Hope I am wrong, but we shall see.

Albert Caruana said...

I think those are valid points. If Stanford chooses to discontinue their invitational then we as coaches will find other meets to fill out our schedule. We don't have to worry about it for at least one more season so onward and upward.

Anonymous said...

We are Division III and I’m tired of running in the heat. We will not be attending until Stanford initiates a rolling schedule.

Anonymous said...

Vista del Lago will be D3 and Jesuit will be D1 based on league re-alignment CBEDs for 2018. http://www.cifsjs.org/schools/18-22_SJS_Leagues.pdf

Anonymous said...

@12:11 Just a FYI, SJS realignment isn't based on CBEDs, it's based on a "competitive equity" model.

Albert Caruana said...

I will wait until the divisions are officially posted for Division I but for now, I will put Jesuit in I and Vista del Lago in III. That could change if they are using a "competitive equity" model but that might not be the case for Cross Country.

Anonymous said...

CIFSJS cross country cbeds are based strictly on enrollment. This has been and always will be the case, the leagues posted are for football, track, etc, not cross country. VLD has over 1860, they are D2, Jesuit will stay D1. Please read the division posting, cross country is ALWAYS based on enrollment and has nothing to do with competitive equity.

Anonymous said...

Where is the division posting that says it's not for cross country?

Albert Caruana said...

While many other sports have switched to a competitive equity model, cross country continues to be one sport that places schools based on their population size. The one section that follows a competitive equity model is the Central Section and that to me is very much a flawed model. McFarland, despite being a school with 860 students, has been in Division I for many years now. Their number of state team titles, while impressive, will not be changing anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

All sections are moving to competitive equity in the next few years. Don’t believe me? Ask Steve Filios.

Albert Caruana said...

Most state meets are also moving up a week except for cross country. I believe they are also going to stick with the same divisional breakdown for cross country but if they change, I will be the first to state that I was wrong.

Anonymous said...

Regarding SJS, Divisional placements are out!! Vista De Lago is D3 (barely) at an 1800 enrollment (not 1864) - remember CBEDS are based on previous year's enrollment. Probably will be bumped up to D2 next year, so this is the final year for a chance at a D3 state title for them. They were second last year and I believe LCC girls are D2 for this year. Jesuit is D1 again, SF is D2. XC is based on CBEDS, NOT a competitive equity model as in the other sports, at least for now. Let the fun begin!

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