Thursday, September 29, 2011

NorCal Rankings 1st Edition, September 28th, 2011


Please feel free to comment on the rankings below.  The rankings are influenced strongly by the Stanford Invitational results.  Anybody else should be considered to move up either list or is entirely missing?  Feel free to chime in the comment section below.

Boys
1)  Campolindo NCS Division III
2)  Bellarmine CCS Division I
3)  Piner NCS Division III
4)  Bella Vista SJS Division II
5)  Woodcreek SJS Division II
6)  San Benito Hollister CCS Division I
7)  Carlmont CCS Division I
8)  Menlo Atherton CCS Division I
9)  Miramonte NCS Division III
10)  Del Campo SJS Division II

Honorable Mention (15 teams in alphabetical order)

Alameda NCS Division II
Amador Valley
NCS Division I

Cupertino CCS Division II 
Davis SJS Division I
De La Salle NCS Division I 
Los Altos CCS Division II
Los Gatos CCS Division II
Mountain View CCS Division II

Placer SJS Division
Redwood NCS Division III
Rocklin SJS Division II
San Lorenzo Valley CCS Division IV
San Ramon Valley NCS Division II

St. Joseph NCS Division V
St. Mary's Berkeley NCS Division IV 
Yreka NS Division IV

Girls
1)  Campolindo NCS Division III
2)  Oak Ridge SJS Division I
3)  Vista del Lago SJS Division III
4)  San Lorenzo Valley CCS Division IV
5)  Woodcreek SJS Division II
6)  Bella Vista SJS Division II
7)  Acalanes NCS Division III
8)  Carlmont CCS Division I
9)  Oakmont SJS Division III
10)  Granada NCS Division I

Honorable Mention (15 teams in alphabetical order)
Amador Valley NCS Division I 
Aptos
CCS Division III

College Park NCS Division I
Davis SJS Division I
Lodi SJS Division Division II
Maria Carrillo NCS Division II
Monte Vista NCS Division I 
Mountain View CCS Division II
Ponderosa SJS Division II
Presentation CCS Division II
Redwood NCS Division III
San Benito, Hollister CCS Division I 
Sacred Heart Cathedral CCS Division III
San Francisco University NCS Division V
St. Francis, Sacramento SJS Division I

Vacaville SJS Division II

Again, comments are welcome. I want to make the above lists as accurate as possible before we head into the league, section and eventually state meet races.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks a bit foolish not to list SRV in the top 5. Lkely to look much more foolish at the end of the season.

I suspect if you look carefully at their top 5 runners, they may habe beaten Bellermine at Lowell.

Albert Caruana said...

Duly noted. I am aware Matt DeVries ran JV at Lowell and was SRV's #1 man at Stanford. No question that when SRV has everybody running well, they are a potential top 5 team in Northern California.

John said...

Anonymous, It's a ranking as of today. SRV has a very good team but unfortunately had an off day at Stanford. It would be hard to rank them higher (as of today) than the seven Norcal teams who ran better at Stanford if you take the combined results into consideration.

Of course, the ultimate goal for all these schools is to run well at the end of the season so your prediction could very much come to pass.

Anonymous said...

id love to see a bellarmine-campo race.

Albert Caruana said...

Both teams will be at the Scott Bauhs Invitational this weekend but Campo's varsity will not be competing.

SJS Fan said...

Looks good. We will see a clash of the top three teams in the SJS in two weeks at the Clovis Invitational. This should be a very good indicator as to where the teams should place at the State meet.

Anonymous said...

SJND should be up there for sure.

Former NCS guy said...

@SJND Anonymous. outside of their top two, SJND has no business on the top ten or honorable mention list. What St. Joe's has is an "impressive" team time from the stanford invite that has caused you to ignore the fact that XC takes 5. Ratto and Arias are solid 1-2, but the team spread at Stanford was more than two minutes. These lists are predictions of how things would transpire if every Norcal team were thrown into one race, and when it comes down to it, SJND's back end doesn't hold up.

Also. Not sure what Vacaville is doing in HM because they sort of throw a wrench in my argument. 18:20 avg runner at stanford.

Anonymous said...

On the girls side Amador Valley at least deserves an honorable mention. They're resting their 5th runner because of injury and they're deep through six. Even though they didn't compete at stanford, they have just as much right as anyone to throw their names into the hat for consideration. Bringing back 7 of 7 from a very close NCS meet last year in which they were edged out of 2nd place by a couple points.
And sorry, I realize this is an ever-evolving list we have here.

Albert Caruana said...

It was a mistake adding Vacaville to the boy's HM list. Fixed now. I also added Amador Valley to the girl's HM list.

Any other notable omissions?

JMR said...

There have been some incredible performances so far this season. Congratulations to all the runners. The SJS battle should continue throught the season and is exciting and fun to watch.

Anonymous said...

Former NCS guy: You should do some fact-checking. SJND has already beat several teams in the list above including St. Mary's and had better overall team times at Stanford and Sias than several teams in this list.

John said...

Regarding SJND, I think you need to re-read what Former NCS guy said about overall team times. Look at the combined results for Stanford and you'll see they were 54th overall. They have a very good top 2 but the 1:51 spread is going to hurt them in big races.

On the girls side, one could argue that Granada should be higher up and maybe St Francis too as they didn't run their full squad at Stanford.

Albert Caruana said...

No question St. Joseph is a very good team. They won the Division V race at Stanford (with their #3 man not running well) handily over my own team and are currently ranked 3rd in state in a loaded Div. V field this year.

I think the NCS Div. V race will come down to St. Joseph and S.F. University this year. Sonoma Academy is much improved this year and will be gunning for both those teams.

Once we hit November, I will post the NCS Divisional rankings.

Albert Caruana said...

Granada and St. Francis for the girls are very good. I don't believe Sophie Hartley is going to race this year for Granada but even without her, they are still quite good.

There are lots of dangerous teams in the top 10 that on any given day can beat teams above them.

hank said...

I took the Stanford results and calculated team points based on only NorCal schools that had complete teams, below is what I came up with

hank

http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/XC/2011/stan_nc.htm

Anonymous said...

Are those only the boys teams? Is there something for the girls?

hank said...

Those are for the boys, but since there is an interest, I have just posted the girls at the same link listed above.

hank

Anonymous said...

As a ncs fan I would say SJND has every right to be put up into the honorable mention list. Looking at results from Ed Sias they did in fact run very well beating Saint Mary's, and this was without their #4. An off race at Stanford for their #3 was the difference.

I strongly question Alameda's right to be on the list. Carlson is a very good runner, but beyond that i have no been impressed in the least.

Albert Caruana said...

St. Joseph has been added to HM list. Any other schools missing? What about for the girls?

Andrew said...

@Anonymous post at 10:10 pm. Alameda is legit. You say Carlson is a very good runner, right? Is that based off his 1600 time alone? Yes, its a good mark for a sophomore. But his 3200 is pretty damn close to Alameda's #2, Duc Nguyen. And they have a sophomore, Cameron Tu, who has been running with those two guys up front all year and is going to improve tremendously. So whatever you say about Carlson, multiply by 3. Their 4 and 5 are both solid, consistent runners, too.

As for girls, Albert, I think you pretty much nailed it. I mean, if Granada is #10 and to me, they look like the most unstoppable team (even without Hartley) at the NCS D1 level, I have no clue on who else there should be.

hank said...

Even if St Joe's #3 guy had an off day at Stanford, let's say :30 slower than normal... that would only move their team up one spot in the norcal list from Stanford, so what about the other teams that still finished in front of them?... Lodi, HMB, Carmel and others, shouldn't they be added to the HM list as well?

hank

Anonymous said...

you guys better watch out that CHICKEN BOY pretty fast and the devender is on his tail

Albert Caruana said...

Exactly right Hank. We will just leave the list as is for now. I will update the NorCal rankings in two weeks following the Crystal Springs Invitational, Clovis etc.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous ncs fan" questions whether Alameda deserves to be on the HM list....

The average 1-5 spread for the other teams on the list at Stanford was over a minute, and the average time for those teams' #1 guy was about 16 minutes. Alameda's spread has been around 45 seconds this year, and their #1's times comparable to a little over 16, so being on the HM list seems reasonable....

Anonymous said...

CCS Division 1 is going to be such a good race for those 2 spots to Fresno. The bells will definitely take one, but the other is up for grabs. so exciting.

Albert Caruana said...

No question that CCS Division I this year is highly competitive. In the latest CCS rankings, the top 4 teams overall (Bellarmine, San Benito, Carlmont and Menlo Atherton) in CCS are all in Division I. that means two very good teams get to stay home in Thanksgiving.

Anonymous said...

Definitely Bell will get the win at CCS, they are just too deep for teams to compete with them in a medium sized race and they fair well in a large race like Stanford because of that amazing spread. If they can get their act together with their 4 and 5 guys they could surprise some people at the state meet. Maybe a podium finish? I think Carlmont is going to get the second spot in Division 1 although it's interesting that a lot of the top teams in D1 decided not to try their luck against Bellarmine in the seeded race at Stanford. Also no Campolindo varsity squad at Scott Bauhs really disappointing would have loved to see that battle.

Anonymous said...

Alameda's spread between their first 3 at Lowell was 8 seconds. How can you say Carlson is the only good runner when #2 and #3 are less than 10 seconds behind?

Anonymous said...

Can't put SHC on the Honorable Mention Girls list without SI and Mitty. Both teams beat SHC during the first 2 WCAL meets.

Anonymous said...

College Prep Varsity girls?

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