The 2025 PR City Invitational at the SilverLakes Equestrian and Sports Park drew 60 schools and over two thousand runners to compete on a fast 3-mile course. For many, this race played as their first 3-mile of the season and their final preparation for the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic.
Ultimately, last Saturday night showcased itself as a proving ground for some of CIF's best cross country teams. The grade-level races demonstrated the talent of various young runners who are beginning their running journey. At the same time, the elite races resulted in surprising finishes and secured the position of some preseason rankings.
Winners Circle
Boys Champion: Maximo Zavaleta (ML King) stormed home in 14:15, pulling away in the final 400m.
Girls Champion: Braelyn Combe (Santiago) establishes herself as the lead shark from the gun, running 16:37 for a 22-second margin of victory.
Pack Power
Redondo Union Boys scored 73 points to outscore the reigning CIF State DI and DIV XC Championship teams.
JSerra Girls looked scary with a 38-second 1-5 spread to take the team title.
Stats Snapshot
Fastest Boy: Maximo Zavaleta (ML King) - 14:15
Fastest Girl: Braelyn Combe (Santiago) - 16:37
Best Boys Team Avg: Redondo Union Boys - 14:44
Best Girls Team Avg: JSerra Girls - 17:17
Tightest Pack: Santiago Boys - 25-second spread
Girls Under 18min: 19
Girls Under 19min: 63
Boys Under 15min: 24
Boys under 16min: 112
Interview of the Day
Editor's Take
The 2nd edition of the PR City Invitational overdelivered across every metric compared to last season. In 2025, the meet took place in the morning at the SilverLakes Sports Complex, featuring approximately 25 schools and a race for each grade level. This year over 60 schools including reigning CIF State Team champions and NXN qualifiers competed under the lights. Additionally a course change made it just about identical to the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic course back in 2021 when Leo Young broke the high school 3-mile record with a 13:38.
This all tells me that PR City may be here to stay and may be the best warm up for Woodbridge coming up in 2 weeks. The Cool Breeze Invitational has held that spot for almost a decade now but PR City has opened up more opportunity for fast times early in the season. Overall this may prove to be a great thing for both Southern California meets as it will stop for either meet getting too crowded.
On the competition side, JSerra's Girls and Redondo Union's Boys looked very impressive in their team victories. JSerra's ability to throw three freshman girls in the top 7 and look just as good as last year is terrifying. Then Redondo looks unbeatable after taking down the reigning CIF State DI XC Champions, Beckman, which makes the Seahawks 3-0 in the first three weeks of the cross country season. However the season is still very early and there's various teams who aren't going to roll over after one race.