The past week brought great conditions and strong competition, and the excellent results contributed to a considerable shakeup in the San Gabriel Valley team rankings.  This list is based on the number of athletes and relays in the 2014 SGV Track & Field Rankings through 3/29.

1. 30 - Arcadia (Last Week – 1)
2. 30 - Walnut (2)
3. 27 - Damien* (4)
4. 19 - Monrovia (6)
5. 18 - South Pasadena (NR)
6. 15 - Glendora (5)
7. 14 - St. Francis* (7)
8. 13 - California (3), La Salle (9)
9. 12 - Bonita (NR), Santa Fe (8)

*Single gender schools.  We are using their actual number x 1.8.  Because math.  Update: One result from the Bell Gardens meet moves California from =9th to =8th.  Update 2: Walnut had a few athletes compete in the Beach Cities Invite, and those results added one more top ten for the Mustangs, bring them level with Arcadia.

Arcadia is joined at the top by Walnut with the Apaches best with ranking in 23 of the 32 events, and with 8 event leaders – G 400, B/G 1600 & 3200, G 4×400, B Shot & B Discus.  Walnut follows closely in the “complete team” race, with rankings in 21 events and 5 event leaders.  Monrovia also leads the SGV in five events.

Individually, there were two new event leaders in the SGV, while eight other leaders improved their seasonal bests.

The Pasadena Games also produced the only two new SGV Event Leaders for this week.  In the 400m, St. Francis junior Ross Niederhaus dropped a huge 48.67 pr while finishing 4th.  Not to be outdone, Barrett Weiss (Flintridge Prep/Jr) jumped 14’1-1/2″ to win the pole vault.

SGV leaders Damien, Monrovia, & South Pasadena also competed at PCC.  Wildcat senior Cravon Gillespe confirmed his SGV 200m lead with a big 21.70 pr to win the event, and the Monrovia girls 4×100 time of 47.72 extended their SGV lead.  2012 State Champ Claire Kieffer-Wright jumped a seasonal best 5’10” to win the high jump.  Muir senior Tierra Adams match an earlier season best of 43’7″ to win the shot and maintain the top spot in the SGV.

The Arcadia and Walnut travelled to the Mt Carmel Invitational, where Mustang soph Kayla Richardson confirmed her SGV sprints leadership with a pair of second places in seasonal bests of 11.90 & 24.40.  Her senior teammate Kyle King took the SGV High Jump lead with a 6’5″ effort to finish 4th.  Apache seniors Kyra White and Veronica Yamane improved their SGV leading marks in the 400 (58.07/4th) and 3200 (11:05/5th) respectively.

Elsewhere among the SGV leaders, Bonita made their big meet debut along with Santa Fe at the Covina Invitational, while Div. IV power La Salle went south to the Calvin Christian Small Schools Invite.  Glendora and California were idle.

We’re three weeks in to the 2014 track season, so we have enough results for our first rankings! (Update: The rankings have been adjusted to account for the results from the Rosemead Invite.  More below.)

Using the SGV Top Ten Performers List as a guide, Arcadia High School leads the rankings with 32 athletes and relays – 15 boys and 17 girls – in the top 10 in their event.  The narrowly edged out Walnut‘s 31 athletes and relays.

While Arcadia is known for their distance athletes, a quick look at the list will show that the Apaches are a complete track team, with athletes ranked in 22 of the 32 boys and girls events.  The runner-up Mustangs are just as balanced – they are also ranked in 22 events

California has the most athletes in a single event on the boys side, with four top 10’s in both the 1600m and 3200m, while Arcadia has the best among the girls with four ranked in the 400m

Here’s the complete Top 10 (single gender schools are doubled)

1. Arcadia – 32
2. Walnut – 31
3. California – 20
4. Damien – 20
5. Glendora – 20
6. Monrovia – 19
7. St. Francis – 18
8. Santa Fe -15
9. La Salle – 15
10. Covina – 13

These rankings are based on 2014 results.  The database includes all invites (except Rosemead, which produces their results in a form that’s incompatible with the various results databases).  Update: After a heroic effort from meet director Fidel Dominguez, and me and the people at Athletic.net, the Rosemead results are in.  But unfortunately, the database only includes dual meet marks that have been publicly published or have been input by the teams themselves.  The rankings would be better and more accurate, of course, if we had every mark from every athlete.