DIVISION II
When news broke in July that Newbury Park and Loyola moved over to Division II, we began crunching the numbers. What we found is that defending champions, Claremont was going to have their hands full in 2018! It was the front end talent of Newbury Park tackling the depth of Claremont while Loyola magically appeared loaded once again, despite only one returning boy from last year's State Meet team!
As expected that trio would bounce back and forth in the rankings all season long. But, once Newbury Park got a healthy Jace Aschbrenner back, the run to their first CIF Title was all but assured. It helps when you have one of the top athletes in the nation as Nico Young proved that his Track season was no fluke. Young, who finished in 149th place at the 2017 finals, not only rolled to the Division II individual title but a new course record at the Riverside Championship Course as well. Along with Ethan Ronk and Kyndall Long, the Panthers came up with enough back-end depth to also secure the Division 2 State Title and still found another great to roll to their sixth-place finish at NXN!
Claremont
left the season as Division II runner-up and came back with a third-place finish at the State Meet (sixth best squad in the state that day). Only eleven points from second place at the State Meet, Ryan Cowgill and Adam Trafecanty along with Serrano-transfer, Jacob Moran, led the squad at the divisional finals.
Despite only returning one runner from the 2017 State Meet squad, Loyola reloaded in a hurry while just missing out on catching Claremont on back-to-back Championship weekends. With a line-up constantly interchanging throughout the season, Mason Ratkovich, Anthony Stone, Vinnie Giachini and Robert Ruelas led the Cubs back to their 12th straight trip to the State Meet. Always peaking come Championship season, they just missed making the podium in Fresno, albeit finishing as the seventh best squad at the California State Meet!
One of the surprises in the section was how El Toro rebounded from graduating most of their group from 2017 to elevate to a fourth-place finish at the divisional finals. Few had them projected to qualify for the State Meet, let alone, a fourth-place finish! Moving from Division I, they improved upon their fifth-place finish from a year ago. Mitch Groff, Jonas Hartline, and Juan Torres led the Chargers.
Working their way back to the State Meet for the first time since their 2008 Championship squad, Thousand Oaks finished fifth at the division finals. One of the most improved athletes in the section was Michael Mireles as he, along with Mitchell Burr, led the Highlanders in 2018. With their sixth-place finish, Simi 
Valley advanced onward for the first time since 2013, while Woodbridge came up big this season by moving onward. With one of the best efforts of any squad in the section, Woodbridge ran their best race of the season at the California State Meet, where they finished sixth and ahead of El Toro, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.
Individually, while Newbury Park's Young stole every headline, Arroyo's Noah Hibbard quietly had one of the best seasons of anybody in California, taking runner-up to Young at the divisional finals and State Meet. He then proceeded to advance to the Footlocker National Meet after his fifth-place finish at the Western Regionals. The defending champion from 2017, Ethan Danforth of Canyon (Canyon Country) was sidelined for all of September but still returned to take third at the SS-Finals. He advanced onto NXN as an individual qualifier with his third-place finish at the State Meet.
Surprise Teams: El Toro, Murrieta Mesa
Surprise Individuals: Michael Mireles (Thousand Oaks), Ewan Macfarlane (Peninsula)