It's time to get fired up for cross country! Our traditional XC countdown is back, although it may look a little different this time around - our longtime data analyst Jeff George has moved on, leaving this energizing project to the MileSplit team in CA. Our collective goal is to briefly highlight 30 boys and 30 girls teams that we think will have an impact this fall. We will spotlight one team per gender per day over a 30-day period. Similar to past countdowns, we will provide a cross-sampling of teams from all 10 sections without regard to statewide or even division ranking (those will come later, as will articles previewing each section, and returning athletes to watch). As always, if you catch an error or have updated information for us, email CA state editor Jeffrey Parenti (jeffrey.parenti@flosports.tv) and we'll make the corrections.
Granada Hills Charter (LA/Division I)
Los Angeles City Section Division I girls cross country champion Granada Hills Charter lost two mainstays to graduation but are scheduled to return runners No. 2 through No. 6 from the CIF State Championships.
Sophomore Meztli Velazquez (pictured above) ran No. 2 for the Highlanders at State and No. 6 at the LAC finals where they were 25 points better than the section's next-best team, Palisades.
Velazquez is the lone non-senior among the returning five, led by Jocelyn Pacheco, Zaida Velazquez, Naima Salazar, and Fiona Le. Pacheco ran No. 2 for GHC at sections and No. 3 at State. Salazar ran No. 3 at sections and No. 5 at State. Zaida Velazquez ran No. 7 at sections and No. 4 at State. Le ran No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
Aside from the handful of returners now with section and State Meet experience, what's encouraging for the Highlanders is their No. 2 through No. 6 group gapped just 40.40 seconds at the State Meet.
| Granada Hills Charter (LA) | ||||
| 1) Jocelyn Pacheco | 19:54.00 | 1 | ||
| 2) Meztli Velazquez | 19:56.30 | 2 | ||
| 3) Naima Salazar | 20:05.30 | 4 | ||
| 4) Zaida Velazquez | 20:24.50 | 6 | ||
| 5) Reece Trice | 20:36.20 | 7 | ||
| Average Time: 20:11.26 Total Time: 1:40:56.30 1-5 Split: 42.20 | ||||
| 6) Fiona Le | 20:53.90 | 9 | ||
| 7) Lilianna Moreira | 21:06.70 | 11 | ||
Scoring is against all returning girls in the Los Angeles City Section.
Photos by DeAnna Turner and Dan Tyree.