Girls

Girls’ Goal: Close the Gap With La Canada

There is little doubt that La Canada has the best team in the league.  So what better way to prepare the Titan girls for a CIF run than to attempt to run with the Spartans?  Take a look at the scoring from League Meet #2:

Our girls had good performances at Lacy Park in October.  Olivia broke 20 minutes.  Alissa was way under 19 minutes.  And six of our girls were under 21 minutes.  Nothing to sneeze at.

They can do even better.

There was a 26 second gap between the league’s #12 and #13 athletes. 20:31 was good for 13th place.  Alejandra can hit that gap.  Fiona can also take a shot at that gap.  And Carlin is not out of reach, either.  And as for the top of the lineup, it is not inconceivable that Alissa could beat Colleen Mispagel.  And both Olivia and Sarah are within shouting distance of the #5 spot.

Altogether, we think that the team time can be cut by a minute.  Lets look at this performance Friday morning and see how close to 98:45 that the team came.

Then, we’ll start talking about the girls’ CIF propects.

Guys

League Title Fight Tomorrow

It has been a long time.  14 years since San Marino won a league title in cross country.  Phil Ryan’s last year.  The program went through some lean years after Phil let go of the reins.  Coach Eduardo Mundo came in with the 2008 season and set a new tone.  It was no longer going to be a way to get your 4 semesters of PE taken care of.  The following year saw the men’s team take third in league, thereby making CIF.  They performed so well at CIF Prelims that they made the Finals.  At the Finals, they confounded projections of 15th or 16th place by grabbing 11th with a great team performance.  They surprised again in 2010 by upsetting favored Temple City to take third at League Finals and advance again to CIF.  2011 saw the team move up into second at League Finals behind SoPas and crown an individual champion (Peaky Yuter).  Last year, it was more of the same with the Tigers beating us 21-53 at League Finals but the rest of the league’s teams fell further behind.  During those years, we had good runners, but not a lot of them.  This year, we have 7 good runners.

We won the first two league meets:

Meaningless though they may have been, we still won them.  Today, it counts.  It all comes down to one race.  All the sweat over the long summer.  The endless workouts.  The planning.  The races that served as mere warm-ups.  The battles to make a difference on the team.  The stress.

Although CIF is the ultimate prize, the chance to win a league title is a close second.  The graduating seniors have an opportunity to do something that no other SM team in the last 14 years has done.  League Champion is one of those designations on the historical record which makes a team stand out.  Especially when our league is composed of bigger schools from Division 3.  You win a league title against a name D3 school like South Pasadena and you have earned a big party.

We finally have a team that can do it but they have to run the race.  And they have to run better than Cullen Irvine and Tyler Gershman and Victor Hidalgo and Yoon Lee.  Those kids want it, too.  They are the defending league champions.  They will not give it to us.  We have to take it.  We have to want it even more than they do.

       BOYS  (DIVISION  4)

    1. Salesian, Los Angeles
    2. Xavier Prep, Palm Desert
    3. Morro Bay
    4. Santa Ynez
    5. Laguna Beach
    6. Big Bear
    7. Crean Lutheran, Irvine
    8. JSerra, San Juan Cap
    9. San Marino
  10. Crespi, Encino
  11. Don Bosco
  12. Fillmore
  13. Harvard-Westlake

Men - Xavier Prep continues to move up the food chain, jumping from #4 this past week. Santa Ynez and Big Bear also moved up.  San Marino stayed in the 9th position.

      GIRLS  (DIVISION  4)

    1. Laguna Beach
    2. JSerra, San Juan Capistrano
    3. Mayfield
    4. Harvard Westlake, Studio City
    5. Xavier Prep, Palm Desert
    6. Big Bear
    7. Oaks Christian
    8. Nipomo
    9. La Reina
  10. Templeton
  11. San Marino
  12. Fillmore
  13. Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks)

Girls - The Xavier Prep joined their teammate men by moving up last week.  That school is having a good year.  Oaks Christian also made a good move, moving up 3 positions.  While many schools either advanced or fell, the Titan girls remained in 11th position.