Ryan started off the year under the radar being a little banged up, but once he was ready to start racing again there was no stopping him. As the season went on he got stronger and stronger. By the end of the season he won NBL with a 13 second margin of victory, whiched helped his team excell into the team title. He then had another strong showing at NCS the following week, placing 2nd overall in DII. This qualified him to the state meet as well as helped his team win again

Just as the Carrillo boys have shown their depth by getting their top 5 onto the AOTW, as now have the Carrillo girls now getting their 4th runner on this list. Mackenzi had a good showing at the state meet. Her time of 19:48 placed her 8th across all 5 divisions out of runners from the Redwood Empire. Race video can be found here.

Zachary helped Matt Salazar lead a young Casa Grande team at the state meet. His time of 16:47 was good enough to place him 10th among Redwood Empire runners across all 5 divisions. Video of the race can be found here.

With an improvement by over 1.5 minutes from last year's NCS, Dante has shown that he is not only a dangerous 800m runner, but has some range into the XC distances with his 15th place finish at this year's NCS. Dante's placing goes to show the depth of the Carrillo team, with him being the 5th boy to receive the AOTW from this squad.

With her 14th place finish at NCS this week was good enough to get her the final individual qualifying spot from her race. Her time of 18:56 was good enough for 6th place from all Empire athletes.

With a brutal team battle between Casa Grande and Maria Carrillo going on around her at the NBL Championships Hannah was one of two girls to keep those two teams from getting all of their scoring members in before any other team's first with her 7th place finish with time of 19:18.

You know your team has some depth when you're the 6th fastest runner in the Empire, but still only the 3rd man on your team. That's what happened to Zac this week with his time of 16:00 at the NBL Championships. But next year should be interesting to watch with Zac being the 2nd fastest returning to the Empire.

SCL Finals is a good example of the old phrase "and that's why you run the race." With all the hype going into this race around our Week 2 AOTW (Eferen Reyes), Casey stepped up and ran a tough 16:02 to take the SCL title.

With an easy win, Molly was able to defend her title as SCL champion. This was the first time that an Analy girl was able to win back to back SCL titles since Jenny Dempsey in 1988. With her time of 19:08 that would rank her 6th within all three Empire championship races.

With her time of 19:47 at the CMC Championships Alyssa was able to solidify herself a second place finish, with over a full minute to the next runner. Since Alyssa is only a sophomore and the only person to beat her (Erin Thomas from Mendocino) is graduating, that leaves the door wide open for Alyssa to take the CMC title next year.

The young freshman from Roseland Prep placed his mark on the conference with his 16:52 at the CMC Championships. With the youth on the boy's side of the conference it should be interesting to see over the next few years to see how this conference shakes out.

It is rare that a freshman is the leader of their team, or at least when they are leading the team it's not placing in the top 3 in the NBL Championships. But that's what SRHS has this year with their freshman phenom in Luca. His time of 16:03 places him 5th on the All-Time freshman list at the Spring Lake course.

Brian has been putting up solid performances all season, but it was at the SCL Championships that he put up the 9th All-Time performance for a freshman on the Spring Lake course. His time of 16:13 was good enough to make him the only underclassman to place in the top 5 of the race, and a marginal 11 seconds from the winner, not bad for a freshman.

How often is it that you can run 15:55 and get 3rd on your own team. Well that's what happened this week when Nick was one of five guys to go sub-16 on Spring Lake in a tri-meet. Nick's effort helped place his team with the 4th All-time team time on the Spring Lake course with an average time of 15:47.

Apparently Carolina wanted to make AOTW a family affair. With her twin sister winning a few weeks ago, Carolina didn't want to be left out. With this being the last league meet heading into the league championships Carolina stepped up with a 18:57. With everyone on Maria Carrillo running the way they are, rolling into NBL 7-0 they are looking pretty dangerous.

When you live all the way up in Mendocino you tend to get over looked pretty easy. Erin is one of those people is hard to not pay attention to. Even with being relativly quiet this year she came out this week to run an impressive 18:45 to win the Sonoma Academy Invite. That time places her 2nd All-Time among CMC runners. With the way she is running, she is the clear favorite to repeat as CMC champion.

Patrick has been on a bit of a roll this week. He started the week at one of their weekly league meets at St. Vincent with the win on their 2.7 mile course in 16:11. He then turned around and ran at the Sonoma Academy Invite to get the second win of the week with a time of 16:19. With a bit of momentum going right now, the top returner from the CMC last year could be poised to take the title this year.

To show the strength of the Casa Grande's boy's team this year, Nick is the second runner this year to get this award for his team. Nick ran very well this week at Spring Lake with a time of 16:09 (getting second only to their team's other AOTW, Matt Salazar). Not only did he help his team win the race, but the team as a whole this week set their school record for best team time on the course (81:26).

If we say the Casa Grande boys are doing well with their second AOTW of the year this week, what do we say about Casa Grande's girls with Ileana being Casa's third girl to get the award this year. With Ileana's time of 19:13 at Spring Lak to help give her team the win and only a point from getting a perfect score on the day.

Adria started off the week in a tough league meet at home. Her time of 20:09 placed her right in the mix of a blanket finish where places 2-6 were all less than 10secs between one and another. Her week continued that weekend as she went out the Castro Valley Invite where her 14th place finish helping secure her team to a 2nd place finish.

It seems that Montgomery as a team place depending on how their top runner places. Starting off the week Christian was able to pull off the win by 11 seconds at Montgomery's league meet, and his team followed with a perfect score. He continued to run well as he went to the Yoshaany Rahm Invitational, where he fell just short of the win, by a margin of just 0.4 seconds. And yep again his team followed him by getting second by a slim 3 points.

Brady lead El Molino this week on the tough course at the Artichoke Invitational placing 7th overall in his race with a time of 12:53. If you were to combine all boys races from that meet you would see Brady place an impressive 22nd out of nearly 1100 runners.

The long trip down to SoCal for the Central Park Invitational didn't seem to effect Trixie much. With her time of 21:15 she was the second runner from Santa Rosa, second to Delaney White (our Week 3 AOTW).

The last few weeks running with a team where the top spot seems to rotate around, Shaz came out and showed her "A" game this week at the Stanford Invitational. Shaz came away this week with the top time of 19:28 to place her 48th in the Seeded race (Video), 13th among all individuals from the NCS at Stanford.

After his break out season last year, Ryan has been relativly quite this year; Until now. Coming out running only his second race, first big invitational, of the year. He placed 36th in the Seeded race at the tough Stanford Invitational (Video) in a time of 16:25. With his entry to the season, he looks to be in the mix of a deep group from the NBL come time for leage championships.

On Wednesday Colin placed 4th as part of the Maria Carrillo squad who were able to put five in the top seven and have an impressive 15 sec split between their #1 and #5 runners at the NBL/SCL interlock. And even with 2 of Carrillo's top 5 runners missing on Saturday at the Woodbridge Classic, Colin was still able to place 8th as an individual to lead the Pumas to the team title.

Cecilia started off the week with a solid showing at the NBL/SCL Interlock with a 3rd place finish. But it was her performance at the Woodbridge Classic where she ran 17:54, which is a time good enough to place her 20th all-time for the Empire for any 3 mile course.

Delaney is showing why she is the defending NBL champion as she comes into midseason form. Pulling double duty this week winning the Super-Septo meet on Wednesday, beating out our week 1 AOTW (Saskia Van Ommerman-Egberts) by 11 seconds. She then came back Saturday to get the second fastest time of the day at the Viking Opener. If she continues to run the way she is, Delaney could be one to watch to go after an NCS title.

After his performance last year setting his school record at the Super-Septo meet, Zach comes back this year and lowers his school record again with a time good enough for 3rd. But that's not where his work finished this week. Zach finished the weekend winning his race at the Viking Opener with the 2nd fastest time of the day, which was good enough for a top 30 all-time mark for the 2mile course.

After coming away last year at the Lagoon Valley Classic in 2nd only to his former teammate Jamie Silva, Efren this year was able to come away with the 'W'. With the win this week and a strong 3rd place showing last week at the Rancho Invite, Efren has set himself up to be a strong contender to come away with the SCL title this year.

Coming back to defend her title from last year at the Lagoon Valley Classic, Paloma ran almost identical times to last year (20:02 in 2012 and 20:05 in 2013) but still had the same 20 second margin of victory. Her win was made all the sweeter with her team also able to back her up and take home the team title as well.

With over a full minute improvement over her time last year, not to mention doing so in extremely warm conditions, Saskia is showing she is one to watch out for this year. Her time of 18:39 at the Rancho Invite places her 9th fastest all-time on that course. Her victory is made more impressive considering she did so by beating the defending NBL champ by 16 second.

After a phenomenal freshman year this runner is showing no signs of a sophomore slump, running the all-time 8th fastest mark (15:25) on the Rancho course. Getting this early season win could springboard him toward another strong season, being the #2 returner from last year in the NBL. With a strong team of young teammates around him, this could be a name to watch for in the years to come.