Girls Coundown to XC Day 12: Palos Verdes

If Palos Verdes follows their pattern, this might be a bit of a "down" year. Now, I should make sure I'm clear here: a "down" year for the Sea Kings means they finish 3rd or 4th at the state meet instead of 1st or 2nd. Over the last 5 years, this team has alternated between a top 2 finish and a top 4 finish every other year, and 2018 held true (2nd place, only 8 points behind 1st). I know, I know, there really isn't much difference between top 2 and top 4, and this is a program that has been in the top 4 for five consecutive years, but there is still a pattern of alternation, as though they are building in 2-year increments. It may not matter this year, though.

I see conflicting information when I dig deep into this team. On the one hand, they return 6 of 7 runners from last fall, including at least 4 rising seniors - which would seem to indicate a run at the Division 3 title this fall. On the other hand, they don't have the track times that I would normally associate with a potential team champion. Samantha Steman and Savannah Scriven posted big 3200 times in the spring (and Scriven a 5:04 1600), but the rest of the team's marks would be described as solid rather than spectacular. That may not be very meaningful, since the Sea Kings don't race much in the spring and don't seem to put much emphasis on track season. They DO have an excellent track record of improving from year to year, and they did fins two new top-7 quality runners during track season, so I'm going out on a limb here and saying that the pattern will end. Palos Verdes is my top-ranked Division 3 team, and I think they will be in contention for the title in 2019.