It's rare to see a state meet team on the boys' side return 6 of their top 7. Even rarer: a team returning its top 9 runners from spring track season, with all of them clocking 4:42 or faster. The Titans will field a balanced team without an individual star (Alejandro Barranco has the top returning XC time, but Josh Ligas led during the spring), but they should have a deep and super tight varsity pack. When I dug into Poway's year-to-year improvement over the last three cross country seasons, I found a big improvement over 3 miles in 2017 and another big improvement at the 5K in 2018. My experience has been that teams really contend the year after a big improvement, and with so much experience back this year I expect Poway to move well up into the top 10 in Division 2.
| Poway High (SD) (CA) | ||||
| 1) Alejandro Barranco | 15:41.00 | 31 | ||
| 2) Josh Ligas | 16:13.90 | 126 | ||
| 3) Zak Beckwith | 16:14.74 | 130 | ||
| 4) Alex Fernandez De La Vega | 16:30.30 | 200 | ||
| 5) Alexander Hirsh | 16:37.60 | 248 | ||
| Average Time: 16:15.51 Total Time: 1:21:17.54 1-5 Split: 56.60 | ||||
| 6) Jake Murray | 16:56.30 | 395 | ||
| 7) Manny Johnson | 17:10.20 | 518 | ||
Stats:
- 3 Mile Improvement Rating: 9th
- 5K Returning Ranking: 9th
- 5K Improvement Rating (3 year): 17th
- Team 1600 Ranking: 8th
- Team 3200 Ranking: 12th