The Taft girls did not disappoint at the 45th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic. Krystal Tjenalooi led the Toreadors with the top time in City and a new Taft school record, their top 5 finished with an average time of 18:23.3 to place 18th in the Rated race (Taft’s 1st time running in a Rated race), and 2 of their runners scored in the top 100 in the Rated race. In virtual team scoring against other City teams at Woodbridge the Taft girls earned a 38-point advantage over 2nd ranked Granada Hills.
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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: Mark Banuelos 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.
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