Granada Hills came out in full war paint and senior Joaquin Ortega-Tomaselli led the charge with the top City time at Rosemead and the 2nd best City time this year.
Woodbridge Preview
Twenty City teams are scheduled to run in this year’s 44th Annual Woodbridge Classic that will include 39 of the top 40 ranked City runners.
On Friday evening, 2 standout City runners will compete in the Varsity White A races. Sun Valley senior ANGEL SOLORIO (pictured in background) will compete in his 1st race this season with intentions of winning the Senior boys race and delivering a school and division record in the process. In the girls race Belmont senior GABRIELA ZARAT leads her talented Sentinels team and will surely be looking for a sub-19 performance and school and division records as well.
San Pedro competes in the Red A races on Friday evening and LACXC.com anxiously awaits what the trio of CAMILLO VISESSIRI-PETIT, ZACHARY MCGRATH and TRISTAN LOMEDICO can deliver in their 3rd race of the year. Can history repeat when EVAN HEDEISHI won this race in 2024?
On Saturday evening the big matchup will be in the boys Blue-B race which includes Birmingham, Granada Hills, North Hollywood, Palisades Charter and Taft (a late add to this race). Some of City’s best D1 teams for sure, this will be a preview of team and individual D1 prospects for City Finals in November. ZACH COHEN (Palisades), ETHAN BAROK (Taft) and JOAQUIN ORTEGA-TOMASELLI (Granada Hills) will be looking at sub-15 performances and JACKSON TAYLOR (Palisades) and HUNTER BENNETT (Taft) should be in the mix as well. Pali runners ETHAN FUNK and ANDREW RAZO will be running at less than 100% but may surprise in their first competitions of the season. THEO MAYEDA (Palisades), TRISTAN BOOKMAN (Granada) and JONAH SIMKIN (Taft) may be the most interesting runners to watch as their performances will greatly influence their teams position in City standings; all 3 should be looking to clear 15:30. Keep an eye on North Hollywood sophomore KENSUKE OHSHIMA from North Hollywood who should clear 16 minutes. In the Gold A race Santee sophomore ADRIAN AGUIRE is expected to run but may be recovering from a nagging leg issue that flared up at Rosemead.
Birmingham and Taft compete in the girls Blue-B race which will highlight City’s #2 runner Birmingham senior YESENIA VALDEZ and one of the top D1 girls teams in Taft who have 5 runners already under 20-minutes this year. We were really hoping to see Granada Hills in this race but they’ll be running with Palisades Charter in the Rated Girls which should be a battle royale for City top honors. The City talent in this race is incredible. City stalwarts ZOEY MORRIS and SAMMY PACHECO will go toe-to-toe but frankly any one of 7 girls could take City honors including Palisades runners DAILA HARINCK, LOUISA MAMME and KENDAL SHAVER and Granada’s SOPHIA BATTLE. We are expecting some ‘shock and awe’ in this race as new coach Brian Bennett unveils his enormously talented girls team. Palisades’ top runner MAYA HIVELY will not be running Woodbridge.
In the penultimate event of the evening North Hollywood senior ANANYA BALARAMA competes in the Bob Day’s Girls Sweepstakes at 9:34pm. This race has phenomenal talent as usual and will be an early test of Ananya’s prospects at State.
Rosemead Invite
Rosemead High School
September 13th, 2025
What used to be a small-school XC meet transformed this year into a time trial for some of southern section’s best programs including Trabucco Hills and Mira Costa. Nonetheless, City athletes rose to the occasion with 17 teams and 203 athletes competing from the LA section. Here are the Power Rankings based on Rosemead results:
Rankings are based on the top 7 runners for each team across all races based on a simulated race. The top 5 runners’ performances are used to determine team times and scoring. Teams with less than 5 runners competing at Rosemead have not been included.
As expected, Granada Hills dominated in both the boys and girls rankings. San Pedro surprised with some big performances, particularly on the boys side. D4 Belmont girls also impressed, bettering a slew of D1 and D2 teams to rank #3 in City.
Belmont senior GABRIELA ZARAT was the breakout star of the night posting the top City time for the girls in 18:03.2. That performance was a 1 minute 15 second PR that earned her 8th place in the Senior race, the highest place of any City runner. The Belmont girls team placed 6th in team scoring, a remarkable result for a D4 team competing against some of the best D1 teams in southern California.
Younger runners ruled the night led by sophomores OLIVIA CORRIGAN (Eagle Rock) and WHITNEY DERBY (Venice). Whitney placed 8th in the Sophomore race with a massive 1-minute 31-second PR and the 4th best City Time on the night. Olivia placed 13th in the senior race (she IS a sophomore) in 18:50.4, ranking her #10 in City overall.
Granada Hills showed well with the girls seniors placing 2nd and the boys 3rd in team scoring. Senior SAMMY PACHECO led the Highlander girls placing 9th in 18:27.4. Some outstanding performances from their younger runners, particularly sophomores TRINIDAD MONTENEGRO and MIA ABREGO, who both had big PR’s. For the boys, senior TRISTAN BOOKMAN was Granada’s #2 and one of 7 City athletes to break 16 minutes on Saturday.
The other boys to break 16 minutes were Marshall senior RYE JUNKER (15:46.7) and Santee junior ADRIAN AGUIRRE, running at less than 100%.
San Pedro made their debut at Rosemead and did not disappoint. Three Pirate boys broke 16 minutes including senior CAMILLO VISESSIRI-PETIT (15:37.8), junior ZACHARY MCGRATH (15:41.1) and sophomore TRISTAN LOMEDICO 15:54.6. Senior FAYE GURROLA was the top girls finisher for San Pedro followed by sophomore NAOMI JOHNSON who ran 2-plus minutes under her previous best.
Sophomore TRISTAN LOMEDICO dropped a huge PR last week at Dana Hills and then improved on that mark at Rosemead, placing 8th in 15:54.6.
Venice sophomore WHITNEY DERBY takes it to a new level crashing through the 19-minute milestone to earn a massive PR of 18:52.7.
Granada sophomore TRINIDAD MONTENEGRO continues to impress with the 6th fastest City performance at Rosemead and a 15-second PR.
ZACHARY MCGRATH closes down on the last 300m in the Junior race at Reseda finishing in 15:41.1. He’s one of 3 San Pedro runners who broke 16-minutes on Saturday.
OLIVIA CORRIGAN posted the top City sophomore time at Rosemead, 18:50.4, to place 13th in the Senior race.
Marshall RYE JUNKER looks in top form posting the 5th best City time of 15:46.7 in the Senior race.
CAMILLO VISESSIRI-PETIT leads a San Pedro boys team with an impressive 15:37.8 to place 26th in the Senior race.
Here are the Top-10 individual City performances at Rosemead ‘25 across all races:
(l-r) Julian Segal, Jonah Simkin, Ethan Barok, Hunter Bennett, Angel Rodriguez, Mark Banuelos, Nour Insfran De Fazio
The Taft boys varsity team had reason to celebrate Saturday night placing 15th in the marque event of the night against some of the states best teams. When the dust settled, 6 of the 7 runners had set PR’s led by ETHAN BAROK’s 15:13.4 and three Toreadors had broke 16 minutes; all 7 finished under 16:15.8.
PR City Invitational
Silverlake Sports Complex
Norco, CA - September 6th, 2025
Taft was the lone City team to run at the PR City Invitational. Both the girls and boys varsity teams ran in the Elite events at the PR Invite and both teams showed impressively.
All seven Taft girls PR’d on Saturday evening led by ISABELL SAKALOWSKY (18:45.3) and JENNY NAVA (18:56.7) who ran 40-seconds under her previous best. The big surprise was HUDSON SONG, running in her first XC race as a sophomore, she posted a 19:12.1 to earn the #3 spot for Taft. Juniors TIFFANY ZHERDEV and MIKAELA TULIUS also had monster 3-minute plus PRs. Really impressive performance that had the top 5 runners all within 46 seconds of each other.
ISABELLA SAKALOWSKY heads for the finish with 800m to go. She placed 52nd in the girls Elite race in 18:456.2 to lead Taft to a 9th place finish.
Junior JENNY NAVA finishes strong as Taft’s #2 posting a PR of 18:56.7, an almost 2-minute improvement compared to same time last year, earning her 61st place.
Senior SADIE CHOI heads into the 2nd mile at the PR Invite. She moved up 27 positions in the final 1.5 miles to place 85th in 19:31.2; a 2-minute PR.
The big surprise on the boys side was junior JONAH SIMKIN who set a 1-minute 8-second PR to finish as Taft’s #3 in 15:42.2. A testament to hard work and consistency this performance ranks him as Taft’s #4 all time in athletic.net, 4 seconds ahead of coach Mario Castillo’s PR from 2010!
Senior ETHAN BAROK smoked the 1st mile in the Elite race at the PR City Invite in 4:45 and held position to the finish in 40th in a PR of 15:13.4.
HUNTER BENNETT chased down 43 places to move from 103rd at mile 1 to 60th at the finish, posting a time of 15:30.6, #6 in City.
Where’s the cape? Junior JONAH SIMKIN takes his glasses off and transitions into a virtual superman! One of the few runners to have the fastest 3rd-mile split Jonah moved up 63 positions in the 2nd half of the race to place 76th in 15:42.2.
Junior JACOB SOMERS sprints to the finish with 110 meters to go in the boys JV D1 race. He finished in 107th place in 17:53.2.
Dana Hills High School
September 6th, 2025
San Padre travelled to southern Orange County, 38 strong, to compete in the re-imagined Dana Hills Invitational. The meet started out on an ominous note with all runners in the ‘Tim Butler Elite Race’ missing a turn and running 2.1 miles versus the full course 3 miles. All the other races ran the full 3 miles. CAMILLO VISESSIRI-PETIT and ZACHARY MCGRATH ran in the boys elite race while FAYE GURROLA and MOLLY FISHER ran in the girls Elite race. Sophomore TRISTAN LOMEDICO was the top placing Pirate, running an almost 2-minute PR to take 7th in 16:22.5 in the D1 sophomore race. Definitely a runner to watch over the next 2 years. Freshman LOGAN ABELLANEDA-ARTEGA also shows promise placing 31st in 17:43.9 in the D1 frosh race.
Senior CAMILLO VISESSIRI-PETIT competed in the truncated ‘Tim Butler Elite Boys’ race, finishing the 2.1 mile course in 10:58.3 for 60th place.
Seniors FAYE GUROLLA and MOLLY FISHER recover at the Finish line; both competed in the Elite race.
Senior FAYE GUROLLA CHOI sprints to the finish in the girls Elite race, placing 73rd in a near-PR of 19:39.9.
San Pedro representing just before the start of the JV D1 boys race.
Junior RAMI ESAHANI was San Pedro’s top finisher in the JV D1 boys race, finishing in 117th place in 18:06.9.
Junior REBEKAH LOPEZ ran over 3 minutes faster than her previous best to place 51st in the girls JV D1 race. Her time of 21:54.2 was the fastest Pirate in the race.
San Pedro Pirates Girls Cross Country
(l-r) Sydney Gales, Kyoko Fujii, Rebekah Lopez, Devine Segovia, Marissa Chavez Lyla Maya
Pomona Fairplex
August 30th 2025
Seven City teams participated at Cool Breeze this year including Belmont, Birmingham, Hamilton, Marshall, Middle College, North Hollywood and Santee.
Sophomore KENSUKE OHSHIMA continued North Hollywood’s eminence with the top City boys performance at Cool Breeze. In his first race of the season Kensuke shaved a minute and 30 seconds off his time from last year on the Pomona Fairplex course to post a 37-second PR of 16:17.4. Kensuke also ran near-even splits which allowed him to move up 13 places in the final 1.5 miles. Well done!
Here are some other notable performances at Cool Breeze.
North Hollywood senior ANANYA BALARAMAN starts the ‘25 Cross-Country campaign in impressive form posting the best City time on a 3-mile course in 7 years and the 3rd best time in 12 years in the Sundown Showdown race at the Cool Breeze Invitational Saturday night. Running almost even splits on a hot (85 degrees at the 9:30pm race start) and windy evening Ananya just missed breaking 17 minutes with a 17:03.6 effort that earned her 2nd place.
Birmingham Looking Strong
Senior YESENIA VALDEZ enters the ‘25 season in top form posting a 40-second PR in the Varsity Large School race at Cool Breeze to place 3rd in 18:18.5.
ALEXIS HUERTA is just 3-weeks back after an IT band flair-up but he still finished the Varsity large school race in a commendable 16:37.1 His splits showed the impact of the lay off but rest assured Alexis will be in the mix come City Finals!
Santee junior ADRIAN AGUIRE posted a 16:46.1 in the large school race, 40 seconds ahead of his mark in last year’s race. Belmont senior EDWIN GOMEZ ran 16:47.3 in the same race which puts him 50 seconds ahead of last year same time. Edwin placed 2nd at City Finals last year so he clearly has his eyes on a City championship this year. On the girls side, Belmont senior GABRIELA ZARAT posted a 19:43.1 for 19th place in the Varsity small school race, 75 seconds ahead of last year’s race.
Here are the top 10 City performances at this year’s Cool Breeze Invitational:
John Glenn High School
Cerritos, CA
August 30th, 2025
Palisades has made the notoriously fast Great Cow Run their season opener for the last 7 years and as usual the Dolphins had some outstanding performances. ZACH COHEN set the City standard with an impressive 14:46.8 to place 2nd in the varsity race. Senior JACKSON TAYLOR, who’s miles ahead of where he was last year, placed 11th in 15:13.8, a 1 minute PR. And sophomore THEO MAYEDA also showed big improvements finishing 54 seconds ahead of his time last year to post a PR of 15:26.4 in the varsity race. Some big question marks around ANDREW RAZO, ETHAN FUNK, MAKO HOLT and newcomer ERNESTO JALAMO, none of whom ran this weekend. Hopefully we’ll see a full team at Woodbridge.
Senior DAILA HARINCK led the Palisades girls with a 5th place in the varsity race, a performance that was over a minute faster than last year, earning her a PR of 18:23.2. ZOEY MORRIS, LULU MAMMEN and KENDAL SHAVER were close behind all finishing within 2 seconds of Daila in 6th, 7th and 8th place respectively. Kendal set a 2-minute PR in the race of 18:25.6 - amazing progress for the junior! Palisades’ #5 MAYA BHASIN also had an impressive run taking over a 1-minute 30 seconds off her PR to place 16th in 19:04.1 and MARIBEL HENDERSON-MACLENNAN also PR’d in 19:04.9 to place 17th in the race. MAYA HIVELY did not run due to conflicts with soccer but hope to see her at Woodbridge.
Pierce Course - 2025
For only the 3rd time in 67 years the City Prelims and Finals will NOT be held on the vaunted Pierce “hill” course that’s hosted some of the City’s greatest runners, a virtually uninterrupted legacy of running unrivaled anywhere in California. Due to construction at Pierce, this year’s post-season competitions will be held on a flat 2-loop course on the north-west side of the Pierce campus (see diagram below). This major course change will have a notable impact on the City Champions, especially affecting individual titles more than team titles. More on this in our upcoming ‘Power Rankings’ issue coming out later this week.
Before 1959, LA City ran their championship races on a 2.0-mile course at “the trails” at UCLA. The record on that course was set by KIRBY TRUE of Marshall in 1958 (9:55.0). The record on the 2-mile Pierce course, the course where City Finals were run from 1959 through 1974, is held by Wilson’s JOSE AMAYA who ran 8:35.0 at City Finals in 1970. Considered by many to be the finest performance at Pierce.
Since the move to Pierce, there have only been 2 deviations to the current Pierce ‘Hill” course and 2 times when the varsity boys did not run the standard Pierce ”Hill” course. The first deviation occurred in 1975, a transition year for City runners in anticipation of the state-wide CIF implementation of a 3-mile/5k standard in 1976, where the course was advertised as 2.85 miles (the record on that course is University’s DAVID PASCAL in 13:54.8). In 1976 the City Section transitioned to the 3-mile course we know today (2.87 miles, actually). The records for the 3-mile Pierce “Hill” course are 14:31.3 by PABLO ROSALES (San Pedro ‘09) and 16:33.2 by MARISSA WILLIAMS (Palisades Charter ‘14).
Note - girls started running City Finals in 1984 so the 3-mile record is all there is.
For reasons unknown, Pierce was not the venue for the 1963 Prelims or Finals; instead both races were run at Peck Park in San Pedro. And in 2010 and 2012 rain caused the races to be moved off of the standard Pierce “Hill” course. In 2010 all races were held on a 5k Pierce rain course, which consisted of two laps around Shepard Stadium and featured relatively flat terrain. In 2012 the boys Varsity Finals race was run on the Pierce hill course (see video – it was a mess) but all the other races that day were moved to Birmingham.
Below is an image of the Pierce Course for the 2025 XC season. The course is 2 loops with each loop 1.5 miles (photo and graphics courtesy of Taft coach Mario Castillo of Taft).
City Division Assignments - 2025
For the 2025 season, there are 10 fewer City team registered for Cross-Country, all from divisions 4 and 5. Last year was a high-water mark by a long shot so hard to say that interest in cross-country is waning but the trend is concerning. Likely though that some notable teams such as Academia Avance and Westchester will ultimately run so the final numbers may be better.
Here are the City XC teams that moved divisions in 2025:
The most surprising change is Monroe’s move from D2 to D1. It’s only the 3rd time in the last 5 years that a team has moved up to D1, the other 2 being Robert F. Kennedy and Venice back in 2023. This move may be a year late for Monroe as last year’s boys varsity team likely would have been chomping on the bit to compete in D1; this year not so much.
A shame to see Mendez back in Division 4 this year. They moved up to D3 in ‘23 and in 2 years usurped the perennial city champs Verdugo Hills last year to win the individual and team boys City titles. This is a program that has shown consistent improvement, both boys and girls, and really should be competing in D2.
‘The Drive’
Is dedicated to LA City’s high school distance running community
The goal is to evangelize exceptional teams and athletes with high quality, curated content and editorial perspectives in an online periodic publication.
Each volume will include a ‘Special’ section, as well as Athletes of the Week/Month, ‘The Week in Pictures’ including a ‘Picture of the Week’, ‘The Numbers’, and ‘Heard on the Trail’.
ENJOY!