The Run Down…

COIVD-19

Last year marked the first time in 61 years that the LA City Cross Country Championships were not run at Pierce College.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of our lives and running was not spared. Summer sessions, Mammoth Camp, the Woodbridge Invitational, the City Championships, the State Meet - these were just some of the milestone events that were taken from LA City runners in 2020.

And while some teams cobbled together a season this past year, CIF’s changing communications on season start dates and the post-season as well as LAUSD’s restrictive COVID policies kept participation low and dampened competitive spirit. That may sound like a condemnation of our high school leadership…It’s not. There was more at stake this past year than high school sports and what’s clear is that the health and safety of students, coaches and teachers was paramount.

Racing has began again, and with it the prospect for running championships and recognizing the champions that inspire us all. But as we reflect on this past 18 months the lingering sentiment is of opportunity lost.

Sofia Abrego had a chance to do what no other City runner, boy or girl, has ever done - win the City individual championship each of her four years of high school. She won’t get that chance.

Lucas Schriver was chasing a final opportunity to capture the elusive City XC title in a rematch against defending City champion Max Arroyo. A City title contest that may have been the race of the year is now just speculation.

And the ‘20 Palisades boys XC team, maybe the most potent City team since Belmont in ‘97, never had a chance to run a single race.

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The ‘21 Season

As we go to press with our first edition of ‘The Drive’ the prospect of running at Pierce this season continues to hang in the balance. The school and course are open today but their fates are tied to the caprice of the new Delta variant.

In the grand scheme though, course availability may be an insignificant concern in comparison to the other challenges coaches and athletes are facing in the upcoming XC season.

This season the mantle of ‘returning runner’ - those athletes with a proven record in cross country - will be relegated to the freshmen and sophomores from the 2019 season, many who have never competed on the challenging Pierce course or in a varsity race. Moreover, it’s likely that some of these runners will decide not to return after such a long break. Proof of this falloff in participation is already playing out in low turnouts this summer in the City’s premier running programs.

Also, many of this year’s juniors, the class that historically makes big improvements in performance, have lost a critical year of running.

And, the City’s top runners will be contending with a shortened summer training schedule due to the City Track & Field Finals being pushed out to the 3rd week of June.

Even those runners who have participated in the past 3 running seasons are finding it a challenge to match performances from this time 2 years ago. Across southern California average times are down 1.6 - 2.5% based on early race results. It’s likely City teams will be hit even harder. We’ll have a full analysis of the impact of COVID on City runners later this month.

But possibly the biggest impact? With both students and coaches off campus since last March the task of recruiting new high school students into city XC programs has been almost impossible. And at the end of the day Cross-country is a numbers game. If the kids aren’t signing up for school running programs as freshmen the impact will have a ripple effect for at least the next 4 years.

And that may well be the enduring impact of COVID for City cross-country.

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Pre-Season Picks

The City cross-country rankings were a specialty of Bruce’s and it’s fitting that we lead off our inaugural volume of ‘The Drive’ by continuing this tradition with our own version of the “LACXC Preseason Cross-Country Picks”. Bruce’s rankings were an amazing alchemy of statistics and intuition that only he could conjure, and his rankings were official CIF LA City Section record. Our rankings, the one’s published in this edition of ‘The Drive’, are neither. But we hope our Picks will be an interesting way to reintroduce the running community to some of LA City’s top teams and athletes that will be competing in this coming XC season.

The Cover Art

The image on our splash page is from the starting line of the 1,600m Championship race at the LA City Track & Field Championships held at Birmingham High School this past June. It’s one of our favorites! A single photo that celebrates the full gamut of LA City’s talented running scene - the outgoing champions, the rising stars, and the challengers in waiting! Senior Lucas Schriver (Palisades) won this race in a close battle with fellow senior Clark Reynolds (Marshall). Both were two of the top finishers in the ‘19 XC season and both missed out on a senior XC season that held great promise. Two ‘Rising Stars’ toed the line next to Schriver and Reynolds, sophomore Francisco Rodriguez (Franklin) and freshman Max Fields (Palisades). These runners had spectacular track seasons and look to be the future of LA City distance running in the next several years. We’ll have an interview with Francisco and his teammate David Martinez in next month’s edition. James Lopez (Cleveland) had fantastic freshman and sophomore seasons at Cleveland earning the 2nd fastest 3-mile time for a City sophomore in 2019 (an incredibly deep year for sophomores) and running as Cleveland’s 2nd runner that same year. He’ll be returning in ‘21 to stake his claim on the City championship.