BOYS - Division 2
Bravo Medical has the talent to win the City Title but it will be a fight to the finish with Marshall and Venice. Add Eagle Rock and RFK and this may be the race of the Championships. Don’t miss this one!
1. BRAVO MEDICAL
The Knights looked to be prohibitive favorites in division 2 prior to the late-summer changes that added Marshall to their division. Nonetheless, they still look like they have the fire-power to take the City title. Bravo return 5 runners from their 2nd place 2021 team led by a trio of boys that on any given day could be their top runner. Senior FABRIZZIO ROMERO has the top time from last year’s City Finals but junior DIEGO DIAZ and sophomore CHRISTOPHER RAMIREZ had excellent track seasons this spring and will challenge Fabrizzio. All three should break 17 minutes on Pierce. To clinch the title though they’ll need improvements from seniors CHRISTIAN TRUJILLO and BRANDON HERNANDEZ. This is a well-coached team that leverages their formidable recruiting capabilities to deliver top notch teams year after year. Expect nothing less in 2022.
2. MARSHALL
With the new divisional changes Marshall has a new lease on life in terms of a City title and an invite to the the State Championship. The Barristers lost their top 3 runners from last year but their #’s 4-6 are returning led by senior JUAN ZAMORA who should be able to break 16 minutes at Pierce. He’ll need some big improvements by seniors FELIX BROGGI-HENDRIX and QUINN CASILLAS, sub-17 for sure, and one of their younger runners to take it to the next level in order to compete against Bravo Medical. Coach Rick Heller is in his 2nd year at the helm of the Marshall XC team and has is work cut out for him. But Heller knows what it takes to run fast at Pierce; he ran an impressive 15:08.4 at City Finals in 1977 to place 2nd to the great Paul Medvin.
3. VENICE
The Gondoliers (had to say that) will be led by one of the brightest stars in City distance running, PAUL TRANQUILLA. Suffice to say we are expecting some legendary performances from Paul this fall. Senior THADEUS STEFANSKY-HALL is a top returner from last year’s team and will be joined by some newbies to XC including senior LEO MENDEZ and sophomore CHARLES SIMON, both who had noteworthy track seasons this spring. That’s 4 runners . . . . and there’s the rub! Venice needs a 5th runner to fill out the scoring roster. Maybe not this year but MILO POPP IV (love that name) has shown promise in his freshman year and will be someone to watch in the next 3 years.
4. EAGLE ROCK
Even in a rebuilding year (the eagle only have 2 returning runners from their 3rd-place 2021 team) this perennial top-performing team still maintains high standards with a 3rd-place ranking. Senior ADAM LEWIS will lead a relatively untested Eagles team that includes junior MICAH RICK, a runner who made big improvements this past spring and may challenge senior COOPER DARLING for the Eagles second spot. But to make a run at Venice and fend off RFK this Eagle Rock team will need big improvements from EVANGILE HIGHTOWER-ROJAS as well junior ANDREW MARTINEZ, who showed promise this spring in his first season running. Another well-coached team that knows how to win in November. Do not count this team out.
5. ROBERT F. KENNEDY
On paper the talent and potential of this team ranks second in division 2. Based on seedings from converted times from league finals at Elysian Park from last year and BEST times at Pierce, RFK is formidable. But several of their top runners did not compete after league finals in ‘21, their top-ranked runner didn’t run City Finals, and their 2nd-ranked runner underperformed at City Finals. And some of these inconsistencies continued to play out this past track season where many of the top runners did not compete. Like my coach used to say, “….if if and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a merry Christmas”. And there’s a lot of “IF’s” and “Buts” here. Looking to this fall RFK potentially has 6 of their varsity runners from their 2021 team that may be led by 2 outstanding runners, seniors JULIAN MARTINEZ and ADOLFO DIEGO. These boys both ran extremely well at prelims last year but either didn’t run City Finals (Martinez) or underperformed at City Finals (Diego). And, neither posted track times this past spring! Junior KEVONE SHERFIELD showed promise last fall (but hasn’t posted any times since) as did senior JONATHAN ALVAREZ and if they can continue to improve will be an important part of the Knights success. Juniors GUSTAVO CASTANON and JAIRO ZAMORA, neither of whom ran XC last year, showed promise this spring. This team has the talent to place in the top 3 if they get their top runners performing at their best in the big race. That’s tremendous progress for a team that didn’t qualify for finals as recently as 2017. This is a program on the upswing and with a bit more consistency they could surprise some of the heavy-weights in division 2.
6. CANOGA PARK
Canoga Park get their top 5 scoring runners back from their 4th place 2021 City Final team, led by their top runner and captain CARLOS ARGUETA who will should be setting his sites on 16-minutes low and a top individual place at City Finals. This was an incredibly young team in 2021 that included sophomores JESUS GONZALES and HENRY CHAVEZ and freshmen ALEXIS GONAZELES, THEODORE SCHNIDERMAN and RYAN MOONEY. A year later and we expect some big improvements from these five. And they’ll need it to beat Bernstein. Sophomore MASON UY may help shore up the scoring for the Hunters. He didn’t run XC last year but showed some promise in his first season of running this spring.