Folders |
California Region Boys Early Season Rankings 2022Published by
Newbury Park's Era Of Domination Continues With The Return of Leo and Lex Young and Aaron Sahlman Back From Record-Setting 2021 Team By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor Boys California Preview The greatest high school cross country team of all time brings back three of its top four, lost its head coach, and added a really good transfer. The spectacular 2021 season has become the new benchmark for greatness, not only in California but in the U.S. The question now is, can Newbury Park be that good again? The incredible team that flew through Woodward Park last fall and scored 16 points (21 in the five division merge) before moving on to crush the best teams in the country at the RunningLane Championships with 29 points returns Leo and Lex Young, twin brothers who recently committed to Stanford. And Aaron Sahlman, the younger brother of Gatorade National High School Athlete of the Year, Colin Sahlman (now at Northern Arizona, reunited with former Newbury Park teammate Nico Young). Coach Sean Brosnan left the team last month to pursue a college opportunity at UCLA, leaving the coaching duties to his capable wife, Tanya Brosnan, and Steve Hawkins. The law firm of Young, Young & Sahlman should remain the best in the business this fall. And those partners are joined by high quality associates Hector Martinez, Dev Doshi and Florida transfer Brayden Seymour, who is a 4:11 miler. Last year at the state meet, the next best team was Great Oak with 119 points. The competition for second in California, and a potential automatic bid for a revived Nike Cross Nationals, should be much closer than the quest for first. Great Oak, which will soon get a chance to compete against former coach Doug Soles' new team from Utah (Herriman) at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, returns four of the top seven from 2021, remain a solid pick for second. Several programs that have aspirations of make it to nationals begin the season in the top five thanks to strong casts of returning athletes. Granada of the North Coast section brings back its top four, and six of seven, from a team that finished seven points behind CIF Division 2 champion San Luis Obispo, including individual runner-up Roland Ruckman-Barnes. Campolindo, the second-place team in Division 3 last year, brings back its 2-3-4-7 runners. San Clemente has five runners coming back from a team that finished fourth in the Division 1 finals. Top returning individuals not on the top five teams include Christopher Caudillo of Clovis, the NXR California champion in 2021 and also the state 1,600 meter champion, Sean Morello from Albany, Parker Simmons from Crescenta Valley and Jason Parra, a junior from Millikan. 1. Newbury Park. The Panthers' position as the No. 1 team in the United States to begin the 2022 season is a no-brainer. This group was hailed as the best ever last year, when it won the RunningLane Championships with 29 points. And it brings back FIVE of the seven who ran that day in Alabama, including Leo Young (14:05.1), Lex Young (14:05.5) and Aaron Sahlman (14:14.4), who are easily three of the top 10 runners in the country in the Class of 2023. Hector Martinez finished ninth at the CIF Division 1 finals, a fact that was overshadowed by the hoopla up in front of him. Dev Doshi, a junior, was the seventh man in Alabama and broke 15 minutes for 5,000 meters. The addition of Brayden Seymour from Hagerty FL, where he was third in the Florida 4A finals last year, only bolsters the lineup and offers flexibility in case of injury. 2. Great Oak. There is another set of twins in California who are good at running. Ramses and Mark Cortes are back for Great Oak, which lost three scorers from last year's state runner-up team (and seventh at RunningLane). But there is enough depth in the pipeline to keep the boys team from Temecula relevant nationally as it pursues another Nike Cross Nationals berth. Seniors Nick Gaffney, Austin Elkins, juniors Gabriel Rodriguez and Cameron Keeney and sophomore Jacob Brown are all high quality runners capable of continuing the Great Oak success story. 3. Granada. With six of seven back from last year's, and 18 of its top 20, Granada of Livermore is looking to improve from last year's second-place finish in Division 2. Senior Roland Ruckman-Barnes is the eighth fastest returner across all divisions from the state meet and leads a group that includes Dheeraj Gurusamy, Farin Soriano, Eshaan Singh, Liam Manley and Luther Hart. The Matadors should get a great early season test at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic in two weeks. 4. Campolindo. A trio of talented seniors -- Alexander Lodewick, Blake Webster and Connor McGhee -- are the foundation of a season with high expectations at Campolindo. Those three have all run under 16 minutes at Woodward Park and should be near the front of the pack of Division 3 this fall. Sophomore Maxson Cook got valuable varsity experience as a freshman and is another key member of the pack. 5. San Clemente. The fourth-place team from last year's Division 1 final brings back five of its top seven, including two top-30 finishers in senior Juan Chantaca and Brett Ephraim. Seniors Rory Castimanes and Grant Sestak and junior Pierce Clark bring state meet experience back to a lineup that should remain among the best in the state. WATCHLIST More news |
