LA City’s Best Get Ready for ‘24 XC
The Top City Runners From Each Division:
(l-r) Angelina Lopez-Sr Canoga Park, Amber Lopez-JR Verdugo Hills, Kellie Mena-Jr MaCES, Blake Sigworth-Jr Palisades Charter, Jorge Montenegro-Sr Monroe, Demitri Hernandez-Sr Mendez, Angeles Feliciano-Sr Santee, Abel Serrano-Sr East Valley, Valerie Palma-Jr Stern, Zoey Morris-So Palisades Charter; Not pictured Carlos Aguiar-Sr Washington Prep (D5)
2024 PRESEASON POWER RANKING
Sponsored by LACXC.com
The LA City Section Power Rankings have arrived and this is our biggest edition yet!
So as not to overwhelm, we are doling out the Power Ranking narratives incrementally. The girls will be published the week of July 8th, one division a day, Monday-Friday. Then the boys will be published the week of July 15th in the same manner.
All in, we analyzed 4,998 XC performances from the ‘23 XC season that included 124 LA City Section schools and 3,508 athletes.
For the girls rankings we analyzed 2,234 XC performances from the ‘23 XC season that included 122 LA City section schools and 1,545 City athletes.
For the boys rankings we analyzed 2,764 XC performances from the ‘23 XC season that included 123 LA City section schools and 1,966 City athletes.
Here’s a summary of the boys and girls performances that were included in this year’s rankings:
Note: “Returning” includes all 9th, 10th and 11th graders who participated in City XC in 2023.
Division totals are based on 2024 division alignments.
Here are the average Pierce-equivalent best times for all 3,511 LA City XC athletes in Fall ‘23, by division and grade:
1 ‘Pierce Time’ includes best performances by all City athletes that ran a timed race on the Pierce Course. If the athlete does not have a ‘23 Pierce performance than the best 3-mile ‘23 XC performance is used and the time converted to a pierce-course equivalent time.
2 Times are based on 2024 division alignments.
The performances above were supplemented with results from the spring track season. And then we added the secret sauce - coach insights and updates - in order to provide the clearest assessment of the top City teams’ potential on November 23rd, 2024 - the City Championships.
Just a reminder, these power rankings are provided by LACXC.com and are not endorsed by CIF Los Angeles Section or its affiliates.
Ranking Narratives - Boys
BOYS - DIVISION 3
#1 MENDEZ
It’s been 6 years since a team other than Verdugo Hills has won the boys D3 City Championships and in 2024 that team will be Mendez. After years of squashing competition in D4 they moved up to D3 last year and got within 13 point of Verdugo to capture the runner-up spot in ‘23. With 6 of their 7 varsity runners returning in ’24 this is a formidable team with the 10th best team-time across all City divisions. Led by senior DEMITRI HERNANDEZ the Tigers should win division 3 by a landslide. And that’s before adding Lincoln transfer ORION PEREZ into the mix. The senior posted Mendez’s top times this spring in his 1st semester at Mendez after transferring from Lincoln with PR’s of 4:53.54 and 10:11.44 and will likely join Hernandez and junior MICHAEL JUAREZ ESTRADA in their quest for 16 minutes on Pierce. With these 3 runners Mendez has the potential to go 1-3 at City Finals. Seniors DAVID GARCIA and EDWIN PEREZ both made big improvements this spring and should be looking at sub-17 this fall. This is one of the most dominant teams in City in terms of divisional scoring but they are not infallible. The team drops off considerably after their #5 so any injuries and University or Verdugo Hills could find space to upset.
Mendez Boys Varsity (2023):
Demitri Herandez-Sr (523), Jonathan Alfaro-Graduated (520), Michael Juarez Estrada-Jr (524), David Garcia-Sr (522), Edwin Perez-Sr (525), Luis Coronado-Tomas-So (521), Emanuel Salas Jimenez-Jr (526)
#2 UNIVERSITY
Junior TUPAC BRETONECHE-ANTONIO leads the Wildcats into their 3rd XC season in D3 since moving from D2. In those 3 years the team has moved from 5th in ’22 to 3rd in ’23 and if they play their cards right they should be able to earn the #2 spot in ’24. They’re not going to touch Mendez this year but they have a solid core of runners that includes seniors RYAN SIDOUMOU and SAMUEL BRAVO and junior YONATHAN KIFLEZGHIE, who will likely be challenging for the #2 spot. No surprises here just a solid team that continues to improve each year.
Ulyses Morales Perez led University's varsity team to 3rd place last year. He leaves behind a legacy that looks to be in good hands in 2024.#3 VERDUGO HILLS
The Dons’ top 3 from last year have graduated and only 3 of their top 7 return in ’24. Seniors ADRIAN VARGAS and SEAN ADAMIAN are the #1 and #2 returning runners and both will be targeting sub-16:30 PRs this fall. Senior TIGRAN TADEVOSIAN and junior ANGEL PINEDA will fight it out for the #3 spot with senior ADAN OCAMPO. That’s 5 solid runners but only 3 spent time on distance this past spring and all 5 of these runners will need to make significant improvements this fall to catch Mendez and University. But Verdugo is a well coached team that always seems to deliver in November and they are one of the larger City XC programs so do not count this team out.
Senior Tigran Tadevosian in full war paint at the '23 East Valley League Finals returns this year as one of Verdugo Hill's top runners.Division 3 Best of the Rest . . .
Its been 5 years since Los Angeles High qualified for the finals when they placed 8th in the 2019 D3 City Championship. The Romans COULD earn their best finish since 1976 this year if they can perform to expectations in November. But this one’s a long shot on several fronts. Though all of their top 5 scoring runners theoretically return this year, last year was the 1st year of running for all of them and none ran track this spring. Also, the team didn’t have any Pierce performances last year so their ranking are based exclusively on converted Peck Park times. If you can get past all of that than their top runner should be senior HORACIO GOMEZ. He’s supported by senior ANGEL ESTEVEZ , brothers CESAR (so) and CARLOS (Sr) BAIXAC AGUILAR , and sophomore YEACHAN PARK.
Franklin continues to churn out talented individual runners and sophomore ISAAC FABIAN looks like he’ll be the next in line. He had a promising freshman track and XC season so look for him break this year. This XC season will be the first year test of the new Franklin coaching regime’s mettle since the Narro brothers, architects of some of the best City performances in the last 5 years, left the program last fall.
Senior BRYANT AVALOS leads Helen Bernstein with the 2nd best returning time in division 3. Panorama junior ANDY TOBAR should be in a fight for a top-5 finish on November 23rd.
King Drew Medical junior DAVID CASTILLO and teammate senior JUAN SANCHEZ should help King Drew’s prospects for a 5th place City Final team result.
JOEL CERON of Roybal Learning Center and sophomore ALLAN LIANG showed improvements this spring and should move up substantially in the D3 placing in November.
‘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!