Sonoma/Mendocino County Schools Rankings

Here are our thoughts for the Sonoma and Mendocino County schools (North Bay League, Sonoma County League, Coastal Mountain Conference).

Boys Teams

1. Petaluma - no surpise - they are the real deal, easily the best team from these parts in the last 20 years, maybe all time. They were probably a little disappointed with their performance at Stanford - I don't think we have seen their best race yet - their best is yet to come. They put up a perfect score on #2 team Maria Carrillo on Carrillo's home course.
2. Maria Carrillo - gets the nod, they were just a minute ahead of Santa Rosa as a team at Stanford. Grant Williams, Carrillo's #1 has yet to put up the sort of times that he is capable of. Pumas are young, balanced, and improving quickly.
3. Santa Rosa - has two very strong front runners in Rory McLeod and Reesey Byers, but their #3-5 runners have not yet shown as well. They have a potentially strong #3 runner in Kurt Wendler that is just starting to run this season after suffering some serious health problems. Panther's face #2 Carrillo at MCHS next Wednesday.
4. Montgomery - Vikings have strong #1 with Aria Kiani, but there is a significant gap between Kiani and their #3-5 runners that they will need to close.
5. Petaluma JV (seriously) Just a minute behind Montgomery at Stanford.

Piner (up and coming program led by dynamite freshman Luis Luna), Casa Grande, and Ukiah (led by junior Andrew Zellman) are also in the mix.

Top Boys
1. Sterling Lockert - PET
2. Rory McLeod - Santa Rosa
3. Hugh Dowdy - PET
4. Reesey Byers - Santa Rosa
T5. Skyler Thomas - Mendocino, Devin Lockert, PET

Girls Teams

1. Maria Carillo - by a fairly large margin (perhaps 3+ minutes or so) over the #2 teams. Curtin twins are just now starting to round into shape. Seniors Jordan Davis and Kelly O'Leary are running very well with top 100 composite finishes at Stanford.
Tie 2. Casa Grande and Montgomery. These teams are very close down the line - Casa Grande has a super front runner in Jacque Taylor, but Celeste Berg has had a very strong start this season as well. Both teams have very capable #2 and #3 runners. Casa won 26 to 30 in a quad meet at Casa. Montgomery 's time and composite score was better at Stanford.
4. Petaluma - Isabel Andrade has come out strong for Petaluma (15th overall at Stanford, winner at Clovis). Capable supporting cast led by Frosh Francesca Honey.
5. Santa Rosa - Suzi Rozga and Eva Stuart lead the Panthers. A few steps behind Petaluma at this point - neither Santa Rosa nor Petaluma have yet been able to narrow their scorers' gap to challenge the top 3 teams above.

Next group - perhaps Windsor, Analy, and Santa Rosa Christian.

Top Girls
1. Jacque Taylor - Casa Grande
2. Isabel Andrade - Petaluma
3. Lauren Curtin - Maria Carrillo
4. Celeste Berg - Montgomery
T5. Julie Nacouzi - Montgomery, Jordan Davis - Maria Carrillo, Cara Curtin - Maria Carrillo

Top 5 Teams in Div 3 NCS

Girls (mostly based on Stanford performances)
1. Maria Carrillo
2. Campolindo
3. Redwood
4. Miramonte
5. ? (haven't seen much of Las Lomas or Acalanes) - Petaluma should be lurking here too

Top 5 Teams in Div 3 NCS

1 Tie - Petaluma and Campolindo - this should be interesting to see
3. Las Lomas (?) - haven't seen much from them, but they were young and stong last year, so we put them here
4. Maria Carrillo
5. Acalanes

then probably Miramonte, Redwood - not too sure

Our apologies in advance if we missed anyone deserving recognition - we admitedly spend most of our time focused on our own kids. We have been impressed with the inspiring quality of competition in general so far this year - many teams seem to be stepping it up!

Greg Fogg and Ruben DiRado (Maria Carrillo coaches)