6. Davis Senior
How do you finish 11th in the Division 1 Race at the 2014 CIF State meet, graduate two of your top 4 runners, and then start the 2015 ranked 6th in the entire state? It helps when you have a track record of getting better from year to year - the Blue Devils rank 7th among the schools we evaluated with our Improvement Rating, dropping an average of 30 seconds off each of their last 3 returning teams by the end of the next season. But why wait until summer to get better? This team put up strong, deep numbers during track season, ranking 5th for returning team 3200 and 2nd in the state in the 1600; Michael Vernau, in particular, stood out for running 9:09.75. Oh, and it would also help to get Ben Roberts back; he sat out the 2014 fall season, but ran 4:12.69 for the 1600 in the spring (and he doesn't factor into the Blue Devils' #10 returning 5K ranking). With the likelihood of having 5 seniors in the top 7 for 2015, Davis needs to capitalize by making it into the top 5 at Woodward Park.
| 1) Nick Borowsky | 15:40.00 | |||
| 2) Kellen Browning | 15:57.00 | |||
| 3) Michael Vernau | 16:27.00 | |||
| 4) Willie Hall | 16:28.00 | |||
| 5) Joe Blakewell | 16:38.00 | |||
| Average Time: 16:14.00 Total Time: 1:21:10.00 1-5 Split: 58.00 | ||||
| 6) Winston Tran | 17:23.00 | |||
| 7) Aaron Bushnell | 17:45.97 | |||
7. Ventura
This team finished the 2014 season as the DIvision 2 champs, and were rated #1 in the state by our database. There were 3 seniors on that squad, 2 in the top 5, but the Cougars definitely still have enough talent back for 2015 to contend for a title against just about any team in the state. Ventura's returning team includes their 1,3,4, and 6 runners from the title squad, and that front four is monstrously fast (all of them at 16:00 or better, with 3 under 15:40). The Cougars looked just as good in track season, putting 5 returners under 4:35 led by Garrett Reynolds' 4:15.93; the returning top 4 also all clocked 9:43 or better in the 3200. Depth is the only concern for Ventura - in the 5K rankings they have a gap between their 4th and 5th runners, and another gap to their returning 6th and 7th. If summer training helps the team close those gaps, it's not out of the question for the Cougars to be repeat champions, although the #1 ranking in the state will be tough to earn a second time.
| 1) Garrett Reynolds | 15:16.00 | |||
| 2) Adan Cruz | 15:37.00 | |||
| 3) Jordan Olson | 15:38.00 | |||
| 4) Nestor Rodriguez | 16:00.00 | |||
| 5) Nick Randazzo | 16:52.42 | |||
| Average Time: 15:52.68 Total Time: 1:19:23.42 1-5 Split: 1:36.42 | ||||
| 6) Jacob Hernandez | 17:38.91 | |||
| 7) Cody Beeson | 17:46.76 | |||
8. Bellarmine College Prep
Six returners under 16:31 and a 1-7 split of 1:03; that's what the Bells have back in the 5K team rankings, good enough for 9th in the state. That's a testament to the depth of the Bellarmine program, because this team ran 6 seniors in last year's CIF State Meet! Consequently, they will have a hard time following up on that 6th-place finish, although the Bells do have a solid record of year-to-year improvement. Even more encouraging: Bellarmine ranked 4th in the state in the returning team 1600 results and 8th in the 3200; in particular, returning #7 Alex Scales stood out for showing significant improvement. Will the large number of boys that participated in track season for this team pay off with new reinforcements this fall? Just repeating their top-10 finish in Division 1 this year would be a tremendous achievement in 2015.
| 1) Marcus Avila | 15:40.00 | |||
| 2) Donald Welsh | 16:13.00 | |||
| 3) Aziz Ghadiali | 16:21.00 | |||
| 4) Thomas Busse | 16:30.00 | |||
| 5) Dylan Doblar | 16:31.00 | |||
| Average Time: 16:15.00 Total Time: 1:21:15.00 1-5 Split: 51.00 | ||||
| 6) Joseph Deck | 16:31.00 | |||
| 7) Alex Scales | 16:43.00 | |||
9. King
2014 was a banner year, even for a perennially strong program like the Wolves. The price, though, is the graduation of three seniors that helped lead King to an 8th-place finish at the CIF State Meet. The remaining 4 runners on that squad were juniors, which means this year's team could have a top 7 composed entirely of rising seniors, and that means the window might be closing on this run of success. Despite the loss of nearly half of the 2014 team, however, the Wolves still have enough returning talent to rank 8th in the California 5K rankings coming into this season. Tyler Janes looks like he could be developing into an individual title contender after running 4:10 this spring, and behind him the team's returning 2-6 runners are separated by only 34 seconds. Furthermore, Daniel Gonzalez could make the team even stronger by pushing the top 3 runners after running 9:25 on the track. If everything comes together for King this fall, the results could very well be a top 5 finish in the Division 1 race at Woodward Park.
| 1) Tyler Janes | 15:37.26 | |||
| 2) Mark Werley | 16:02.91 | |||
| 3) Michael Robinson | 16:18.00 | |||
| 4) David Huff | 16:29.09 | |||
| 5) Daniel G Gonzalez | 16:31.73 | |||
| Average Time: 16:11.80 Total Time: 1:20:58.99 1-5 Split: 54.47 | ||||
| 6) Blake Simpson | 16:34.02 | |||
| 7) Andrew Boebinger | 16:36.70 | |||
10. West Torrance
It has been a bit hard to get an accurate fix on where this team is as we head into the 2015 season. On the one hand, the Warriors have as much returning talent from the 2014 cross country as anyone else in the rankings - they are 3rd-best in the state in the 5K and 9th-best in the 3 Mile rankings. That's largely because they only had one senior in the top 7 when they finished 6th in the D2 race at the 2014 state meet; this team returns a strong top 3 led by Yousef Baddour, with solid depth behind it. On the other hand, there really isn't anything from West Torrance's spring season that gives me the feeling that the runners have improved significantly; while all of the returning runners recorded results during track season, none of them broke 10 minutes in the 3200 and only two ran under 4:35. A team doesn't have to have a great spring to contend for a state title in the fall, and some schools just don't emphasize track, but I sure like to see year-round progress being made. If the returning cross country team is the Warrior squad we see again this fall, though, this ranking could even be a little low.
| 1) Yousef Baddour | 15:28.00 | |||
| 2) Carson Bix | 15:42.00 | |||
| 3) Caleb Terril | 15:52.00 | |||
| 4) Jorge Rodriguez | 16:14.00 | |||
| 5) Eddie Fung | 16:26.00 | |||
| Average Time: 15:56.40 Total Time: 1:19:42.00 1-5 Split: 58.00 | ||||
| 6) Ike Tamanaha | 16:31.00 | |||