Sunday, July 26, 2009

CCS Division II Pre-Season Rankings by Kevin Liao

BOYS

Division II, the strongest grouping of all the five CCS divisions last year, looks to be even better in 2009. Mountain View leads a group of teams battling for the three spots advancing to the state meet. The Spartans placed third at the CIF meet last year and return their top three harriers from the podium finish. Garrett Rowe proved himself to be a strong big meet performer in both cross country and track, coming in second over the 5k course at Woodward Park in 15:03 and fourth in the 3200 meters in 8:55. Though dominant most of the last cross country season, Rowe was often challenged by teammate Ian Myjer. Myjer defeated Rowe at the Clovis Invite in 15:17 and was just a second behind his teammate at Crystal Springs in 14:57. Mountain View's 3-4-5 will likely consist of outstanding junior Parker Schuh (15:31 at Crystal Springs, 15:38 at Woodward Park), junior Brian Crook, and senior Alex McGuirk.

Paul Summers from Gunn had a solid 2008 cross country season, turning out times of 15:40 at Crystal Springs and 15:59 at Woodward Park, but exploded onto the scene of elite CCS athletes with his 9:13 over 3200 meters this past spring. Summers leads a Gunn squad that returns all of its top five, four of whom were sub-17 minute Crystal SpringsProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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unners.

Coming off a strong track season in which he improved his PR's to 4:15 for 1600 meters and 9:07 for 3200 meters, Phillip Macquitty leads a somewhat depleted Palo Alto team in its attempt to again qualify for state as a team. Having graduated numbers two and three, the Vikings only return three under the 17 minute mark at Crystal Springs. Challenging Paly for the third spot will be Los Gatos. The traditionally strong program had a bit of a down year in 2008, but looks to rebound behind star junior Will Geiken. Like Summers, Geiken exploded onto the scene with a 9:20 3200 effort during track season. The Wildcats return four of their five scorers.

Top 5 Teams (Top 3 advance to state)

  1. Mountain View
  2. Gunn
  3. Palo Alto
  4. Los Gatos
  5. St. Francis

Watch out for: Woodside, Leigh

Top 5 returning individuals, (place) & 2008 CCS meet time:

  1. Garrett Rowe (1) Mountain View 15:29
  2. Ian Myjer (2) Mountain View 15:37
  3. Phil Macquitty (3) Palo Alto 15:48
  4. Parker Schuh (4) Mountain View 15:56
  5. Paul Summers (6) Gunn 16:25
GIRLS

Much like on the boys side, Mountain View dominated the CCS cross country scene in 2008 and looks to continue its success in 2009. The Spartans return three of five scorers from their fourth place state team, lead by top returning individual Zoe Pappas, who boasts PRs of 19:00 at Woodward Park and 18:57 at Crystal Springs. Sophomore Allison Sturges should also be a fine addition to the team after a spectacular track season that included a 4:59 1600 for second place at CCS finals. Juniors Sarah Wells and Susie Reynolds should be important factors to the strength of Mountain View's team.

A number of remaining teams will battle for the two team bids to the state meet. Los Gatos has a strong #1 runner in junior Katie Castro, but will need improvement by other runners to contend. Lynbrook has a similar predicament with a solid 1-2 punch of Cindy Huang (2:13 800m, 18:36 at Crystal Springs) and Lauren Tang, but need improvement from a number of low 20 minute Crystal runners to sure up the back end of the rotation.

Presentation returns three sub-20 minute Crystal Springs runners, highlighted by junior Tori Tsolis, a 5:13 and 2:14 track runner. If the Panthers can find a strong fifth runner, they can be a force in Division II. St. Francis has two athletes in the 19s at Crystal Springs as well as two on the cusp of breaking the 20 minute barrier.

Top 5 Teams (Top 3 advance to state)

  1. Mountain View
  2. Los Gatos
  3. Lynbrook
  4. Presentation
  5. St. Francis

Watch out for: Palo Alto, Leland, Mitty

Top 5 returning individuals, (place) & 2008 CCS meet time:

  1. Zoe Pappas (5) Mountain View 19:13
  2. Cindy Huang (6) Lynbrook 19:19
  3. Melissa Hopper (9) Leigh 19:30
  4. Claudia Barnett (10) Leland 19:33
  5. Katie Castro (11) Los Gatos 19:34
Thanks to Kevin for taking care of the CCS Division II rankings this year. Please feel free to chime in your thoughts about the above rankings in the comment section below.

CCS Division III Pre-Season rankings will be posted tomorrow.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

How does Mountain View return 3 of their top 5 scorers? They lose Mary Reynolds, Kristin Talbot, and Alex Westbrook. Which meet are you using?

Albert Caruana said...

http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/cifxc2008/d2g.txt

Anonymous said...

The girl to watch out for in D2 is sophomore Alison Sturges from Mountain Vew. She was right with Mary Reynolds last fall until she was injured. Individual state qualifier as a freshman in the 1600, but she's probably more suited for 5K

Anonymous said...

pick Geiken from Los Gatos to crack CCS top 5 and mountain view to go 1-2-3. Geiken came on strong in track as a soph and is someone to watch for the future. Senior Rowe is a beast and untouchable in CCS if healthy. He has sub 14:40 at Crystal potential. Rowe-Myjer-Shuh-MacQuitty-Geiken-Summers.

Anonymous said...

You might want to consider putting Allison Sturges at the top of the top 5 returning runners list. She was the #2 runner for Mountain View, right behind Mary Reynolds, until she got injured before Leagues which took her out for the rest of the season. Her Woodward Park time (during mid-season) at the Clovis Invitational was 18:43!

Albert Caruana said...

There is no question that Allison Sturges is one of the fastest returning runners from last school year.

Kevin and I post the top returning 5 runners from the previous section meet.

I am sure Allison will make a statement early in the season.

Anonymous said...

I agree that Alison Sturges is the one to watch for in the girls D2 race. I think it is unseen that she is more of a 5k runner though. I didn't see a 3200 mark in track, and I know she was injured at the end of last season but athletes who ran in the 17's at Crystal have slower mile times.

That said she is going to run some amazing times, I just think her mile time is better than what she could have doen in the 5k that's all.

Anonymous said...

agree with earlier post that sturges will ultimately be a better 5k cross country performer, and ultimately 3200 if she focuses on that event over 1600.

Anonymous said...

The equivalent for a 4:59 1600 meters is about 10:40 for 3200. I don't think she could have done that this year.

She will in the future though. Anyone know why she never ran a 3200 this year?

Anonymous said...

Castro is a junior not a senior

Albert Caruana said...

Fixed the grade on Katie Castro. Thanks for catching that.

Thank you all for your comments on the above rankings. Great to see all the passionate dialog before the season even starts.

Anonymous said...

She never ran the 3200 because she was coming off a serious injury in the fall that stopped her from running completely from end of October to end of December. She was going to put in a few 3200 times at the end of track season, but then some shin splints started, so she decided to take it easy this year and skip the 3200.

Looking at other Freshman whose times she was tracking with last year in XC (before she got injured) and who did run the 3200 this year, makes me believe she would have been able to run a 10:40 +/- this past track season.

She for sure is a 3200 and 5K runner more than a miler. Time will tell. :o)

jkkkkkk said...

Sturges has run some very good times on Woodward Park as well as Crystal Springs... sub 18 on there definitely makes you pretty elite in Norcal.

I too think she could do very well if she moves up to the 3200... when was the last time a girl in the CCS went under 10:30? Tori Tyler was just off of that. Ale Barrientos?

Anonymous said...

With some steady improvement Sturges should go in the 17's at State by her Junior or Senior year. Probably low 18's this year.

Bergman probably would have run it or close to it this year if she didn't get sick. Daly from SI (2007) and Graham from Gunn (2002) both got close runinning 10:32. Tyler from Gunn ran 10:31 in 2005.

"Sub 10:30" was indeed Alejandra Barrientos when she ran 10:11 in 2000.

Anonymous said...

Interesting note on putting GUNN boys ahead of Palo Alto... the two teams should have some pretty epic battles for Palo Alto's championship...
GUNN is a vastly impressive and consistent program and their girls look very good as well for the upcoming year after a solid track campaign.
Paul Summers seemed to me to have the biggest improvement between xc to track, and alex johann / robert chen are a very solid 2/3 (both ran sub 16:30 at woodward!), probably better than palo alto's 2/3, but i have the feeling that palo alto has more depth

Will Pandori said...

Tell me if I'm wrong, but didn't Parker Schu do robotics instead of track? I am sure he still ran, but forgoing track can have huge consequences on a developing runner. I hope he has picked up his old form. A fantastic number three like him could vault Mt. View from being a great team to a Homeric one. What's the update on Parker?

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