Confession time: I saw the San Francisco University girls coming last season, knew they were a title contender - but their boys' team caught me sleeping. Perhaps that's because of the Red Devils' youth: they only had 2 seniors in their top 7 in 2017 to go with an unheard-of three sophomores. In other words, it looks like they may have won a season ahead of schedule, and now they have 5 of 7 back to try to repeat. The window might not close after this season, either, since they will have their expected top 3 back for another year. Being able to claim 5 returning runners under 17 makes you a contender out of the gates in Division 5. Charlie Kennedy looks like an individual contender, especially after posting a 4:24 1600 in the spring. Then there's the matter of the Red Devils' stellar Improvement Rating: only 4 teams in all of California have been better at season-to-season 5K improvement over the last three years, relative to school size. There is plenty of talent here for a repeat title, and I consider University the favorite in D5 until they're unseated.
| RANK | TIME | ATHLETE/TEAM | GRADE | MEET DATEPLACE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16:24.20 | 2020 | ||
| 2 | 16:25.20 | 2020 | ||
| 3 | 16:51.80 | 2020 | ||
| 4 | 16:52.00 | 2019 | ||
| 5 | 16:53.20 | 2019 | ||
| 6 | 17:51.10 | 2019 | ||
| 7 | 18:05.90 | 2019 | ||
| 8 | 18:08.90 | 2019 | ||
| 9 | 18:23.20 | 2021 |
Team Statistics:
- 5K Improvement Rating: 5th
- 5K Returning Rankings: 32nd
- 3200 Returning Rankings: 73rd
- 1600 Returning Rankings: 74th