Both of Taft's varsity teams took City top honors at Woodbridge. Two sophomores led the Taft girls, KRYSTAL TJENALOOI and UNICA GUERRERO, and both of set school records this season. Jenny Nava was Taft’s #3, running on very limited mileage she still managed to almost break 18 minutes and just missed top-100 in the Rated race. A supremely talented runner, she will be a runner to watch in November. These 3 runners have the top 3 LA City times this season. Note: Hudson Song is not running XC this season. And if the girls first go in the Rated race was impressive, the Taft boys posted a bigger margin over City teams, outscoring 2nd ranked Marshall by 55 points. No front runners this year but their top 5 scored within 15 seconds of each other, led by senior JONAH SIMKIN, and 4 of these runners broke 16 minutes. This is a formidable team that may surprise in November. Note: Mark Banuelos has transferred to Redondo Union.

Palisades Charter did not run at Woodbridge; both the girls and boys will likely be challenging Taft for D1 City title.

On the individual, Santee senior ADRIANNE AGUIRRE took City top honors with a 25-seconds PR of 15:09.5. Adrianne spent most of last year dealing with a nagging thigh injury. He appears to be in top form this year and will be a force if he can stay healthy. Kennedy’s top runner, junior FELIPE FRANSUAT PEREZ, was on a sub-15 minute tear at 2-miles but faded in the final mile to finish with City’s #2 performance 15:19.4. Marshall’s top 2, sophomore ALEXANDER SWARTZ and senior FAUSTO NOBOA, both ran PBs in Saturday morning’s Green races. Alexander is running over a minute faster than his freshman year and the reigning D2 champion is 20 seconds ahead of last year. Cleveland phenom WILL ABIRAGI ran the 2nd fastest City D1 time in a PR of 15:35.1 which puts him in the money for City Finals. Regardless of that outcome, his commitment this fall should pay dividends next spring.

The top 10 City girls at Woodbridge look to be the future of LA City XC. Eight of these girls will be back next year and 4 are underclassmen. And all have made big improvements over last year to rise to the top. The Taft girls lead the rankings and you can read about them above. Granada Hills freshman ALLESANDRE DUUMAS was the big surprise for the girls. She ran well at Rosemead, a faster course, but PB’d by over a minute at Woodbridge to rank #4 in City and the top freshman. This could be a franchise runner for Granada! Belmont junior KAREN YES is also having a break-out season. Her school record performance of 18:20.2 on Friday night is almost 2-minutes off her ‘25 PR night and ranks her #5 in LA City.