Santee’s ADRIAN AGUIRRE leads out the Mile High 3-Mile Run at the Rose City Cross Country Challenge. Adrian ran in the front pack and with 800m to go took the lead and finished strong to win in 15:25.30. That’s Canoga Park sophomore DANIEL TORRES and Taft seniors JONAH SIMKIN and MARK BANUELOS (AKA William Hipple) in the picture as well; Mark was Taft’s top finisher placing 4th in 15:55.7.
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LACXC.com was out of town during Bell-Jeff but a couple noteworthy performances. Marshall sophomore Alexander Swartz won the Doug Speck race in 15:49.1, the third fastest time by any athlete at Bell-Jeff in the last 3 years. Two other City runners were close behind placing 2nd, Kennedy junior Felipe Perez, and 3rd, Marshall senior Fausto Noboa. Really impressive stuff from City teams. The Marshall team placed 3rd in the event. Kennedy junior Emily Rodriguez was the top City finisher, placing 4th in the premier Jimmy Balderas event in 19:26.8
Granada Hill’s now have 2 freshman girls setting the pace for the Highlanders. Allesandra Duenas’ had a breakout performance at Woodbridge with the 4th fastest City time, 18:18.7. She followed that up on the 5k course at Clovis with a 19:50.4. At Nike Portland XC on 9/26 Valeria Rojas posted a 19:59.0 for 5k; a PR over both her Woodbridge and Rosemead times. They are ranked #1 and #2 in the City 5k rankings.
Belmont junior Karen Yes passed on running at Rose City due to an ankle injury incurred at Bell-Jeff. She should be back at 100% for Bell Gardens.
Former Eagle Rock athlete Olivia Corrigan won the D2 Varsity race at Clovis in 17:55.1. She now runs for Saugus in the Southern Section.
34 City teams are scheduled to run at Bell Gardens on October 17th. The race is introducing a new Varsity division which should give City teams one of the first (and last) opportunities to go head-to-head prior to post season.
Heard on the Trail:
Rose City Cross Country Challenge
Oct. 10th, 2026 - Hahamongna Watershed
Pasaedana, CA
Taft continues to impress with team and individual titles in the boys and girls varsity and JV races at Rose City. Taft Junior EMERALDA VARGAS won her 1st HS XC race winning the JV 3-Mile race in 19:46.9. Senior ARIANNA LEWIS was close behind placing 2nd in 19:50.0. In the girls Varsity race, Taft’s top 6 runners placed in the top 12 to win the team race with 29 points. Sophomores KRYSTAL TJENALOOI and UNICA GUERRERO battled for the title with Krystal winning in the last 200m in 18:30.4; Unica finished 2nd in 18:32.8. Canoga Park sophomore GABRIELA CASTELLANOS ran a huge PR of 18:58.0 to place 5th in the Varsity race. A runner to watch, she could be the next in a long line of Canoga Park City D2 Champions.
Taft sophomore LIAM BARTH took top honors in the boys JV race in 16:47.5. Teammate MASSIMO SAKALOWSKY posted the 2nd fastest frosh time, 16:59.0, placing 3rd in the JV race. Taft’s scoring runners all placed within the top 10 in the JV race. In the Varsity race Santee senior ADRIAN AGUIRRE showed that his Woodbridge time of 15:08.9 was no aberration. Running on a more technical and hilly course at Rose City, Adrian still managed to run 15:25.3 to win in a very well executed race plan, his first HS XC win! Birmingham senior DANIEL SALAZAR set a PB of 15:37.3 to place 3rd in the Varsity race; a superb performance. Taft senior MARK BANUELOS nearly PR’d to place 4th. Garfield had 2 runners nearly break 16 minutes in the varsity race. Sophomore JESUS TORO placed 5th in 16:00.1, the top City sophomore, and junior ALEXIS ORTIZ placed 6th in 16:00.7; both were PBs and mid 15-minute performances on Woodbridge or Rosemead. Two runners to watch! Canoga Park sophomore DANIEL TORRES placed 19th in 16:32.9; he’s shown impressive improvements his sophomore year and will be a runner to watch in November.
Adrian Aguirre set a course record at Rose City in 15:25.3. He’s a top contender for the D2 title in November.
Krystal Tjenalooi takes the win in the varsity race to lead Taft to a team victory at Rose City.
Twins Unica and Genesis Guerrero are a big part of the Taft girls success this season. Unica placed 2nd in 18:32.8 and Genesis 8th 19:12.8
Daniel Salazar (2836) continues to impress in his senior year with a big 3rd place finish at Rose City in 15:37.3, the top B’ham runner.
Canoga Park has a slew of young talent and sophomore Gabriela Castellanos is one of their brightest. Here she crosses the finish line at Rose City in 5th place in a PB of 18:58.0.
Sophomore Liam Barth looks to be the future of the Taft Boy’s team. He set a school grade-level record at Woodbridge (15:58.1) and won the JV race at Rose City in 16:47.5.
Junior Esmeralda Vargas is running over 2 minutes faster than last year’s season best. She won the JV race at Rose City in 19:46.9, the 6th fastest Taft time on the day.
45th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic
Sept, 18-19th, 2026 - The Great Park, Irvine
Both of Taft's varsity teams took top City honors at Woodbridge. Two sophomores led the Toreadors, KRYSTAL TJENALOOI and UNICA GUERRERO. Both have set school records this season, Unica 3 weeks ago at We RUN LA and Krystal on Saturday evening in the rated race. Jenny Nava finished as Taft’s #3; running on very limited mileage she still managed to almost break 18 minutes and just missed placing top-100 in the Rated race. A very talented runner, she’ll be someone to watch in November. These 3 runners posted the top LA City times this season. Note: Hudson Song is not running XC this season. No front runners this year for the Taft boys but as a squad this team is better. In the Gold Varsity B race they just missed getting all of their top 5 runners under 16-minutes, led by senior JONAH SIMKIN who finished in 15:43.6. More impressive, the delta between their #1 and #5 was a mere 16.5 seconds. That combination earned the Toreadors a 55-point margin over 2nd ranked Marshall in hypothetical scoring and if they can continue to improve will make the Taft boys a tough team to beat in November. Note: William Hipple has transferred to Redondo Union.
Palisades Charter did not run at Woodbridge; both their girls and boys will likely challenging Taft for D1 City title.
Santee senior ADRIAN AGUIRRE took City top honors with a 25-seconds PR of 15:09.5. Adrian spent most of last year dealing with a nagging thigh injury but 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 Fausto, 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. All have made big improvements over last year to rise to the top. The Taft girls dominated the City leader board with the top 3 City performances at Woodbridge and 8 of the fastest 15 City performances (see below). Granada Hills freshman ALLESANDRE DUUMAS was the big surprise for the City girls. She ran well on the faster Rosemead course 2 weeks ago. But her performance at Woodbridge was another level; she PR’d by over a minute to rank #4 in City as the top freshman. This could be a franchise runner for Granada! Belmont junior KAREN YES’ hard work this summer is paying off with some very impressive early season performances. Her school record performance of 18:20.2 on Friday night is almost 2 minutes off her ‘25 PR and ranks her #5 in LA City.
Krystal Tjenalooi set a Taft school record and the City standard of 17:52.0 in the Rated race at Woodbridge.
Junior KAREN YES set a Belmont school record and a City D5 record with her 18:20.2 performance in the White Varsity A race on Friday evening. She’s ranked #5 in LA City.
Cleveland junior WILL ABIRAGI crosses the 2-mile mark in the Blue Varsity B race. He finished in 15:35.1, a 30-second PR over his time at Cool Breeze 2 weeks ago.
Last year’s D2 City runner-up FIONA WALTS led Eagle Rock with a 19:29.3 in the Gold Varsity A race.
San Pedro junior ZACHARY MCGRATH matched his ‘25 season PR with a 15:41.1 performance that ranks #7 in LA City
Granada Hills Varsity
Kylie Garcia, Mia Abrego, Trinidad Montenegro, Elena Medrano, Allesandra Duenas, Emma Contreras, Toni Cruz
Kennedy Varsity Boys
Ian Castillo, Mateo Cedillo, Charles Menjivar, Felipe Perez, Nour de Fazio, Diego Cervantes, Bryan Rodriguez
Top 15 Individual City Performances
City Team Rankings
City rankings are based on scoring of the top 5 runners for each team based on performances across all races at the 45th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, scored in a virtual contest with only City teams. City teams that with fewer than 5 runners are not included in the ranking.
‘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!