Thank you for all those of you who submitted times for the First (Hopefully the Only) Brea XC Virtual Mile. It was a close one in the team battle between the class of 2020 and 2011. Their respective scores were tied at 27, each with the class of 2020 edging out through the tiebreaker.

On the individual men's side, 2016 grad, Austin Tamagno took the victory with a time of 4:26, and Caleb Myers, class of 2017, in a close second with a time of 4:28. Rounding out the podium with a time of 4:43 was, the still very young and speedy, Boys cross country coach, Bruno Morlan.

On the women's side the top finisher was, 2020 grad, Whitney Valenti with a time of 5:10. Second was class of 1998 alum, Maika Nelson. And third was Cassie Apahidean, currently finishing her sophomore year.

The full results are below, as well as pictures sent in by everyone.

    “Everything’s bigger in Texas”...words to live by. The top 12 varsity Wildcats (plus 12 Ladycats) burst the Brea bubble last month and flew on a PLANE right into the Lone Star State, home of BBQ and the Morlan family. Our team arrived at the park before the sun that Saturday morning; as Luke Stratton so poetically said, “It felt like Woodbridge”. The rodeo began with the Varsity Elite race, in which the top 7 placed 13th out of 35 teams. Senior Shane Gaffikin got ‘er done with a top 50 place finish out of the field of 250+ cracking cowboys. Jonathan Manara, sneaking some of his red sauce past TSA, powered through the heat to an impressive 17:09 on the 5k course (some sources debate the accuracy of the course length, claiming that even the courses are bigger in Texas). “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” theme could faintly be heard in the background as the showdown between Manny DeBarros and Luke Stratton resulted in a 3 second gap between the two. Manny showed in this race that it wasn’t his first rodeo and he’s ready to roll with the big boys, and we’re excited to see what he will be capable of come November. Rounding out the score was Ryan Daedler, channeling his inner Clint Eastwood to stick with the thunderous Matthew Apahidean, eventually passing him at the final stretch due to some preventative measures taken by Matt that helped preserve the cleanliness of his uniform (think explosive chunks). Not 7 seconds behind the duo was the lone ranger Jordan Ostby. Jordo has made significant gains in his training this season and has stapled his place on the varsity team. With the combination of less-than-favorable weather, and minor injuries that have been plaguing our team, the varsity squad did not perform at the predicted level of competition that we’d hoped. However, I reckon that by the time League comes ‘round, our rowdy runners will be ready to roll, and reach that raised platform at the State meet, come hell or high water. 
The top 12 runners went to Texas and overall the trip went very well and the team had lots of fun bonding and sightseeing. But the more important event of the trip was the Southlake Race. The 5 JV runners made an excellent performance. Jack Livingston was up in front only to have his injury flare up again but still coming in third for the team. Drew Beigler stayed constant and performed well for his first JV race. Shane Park although hurting pushed through the pain and was able to bring in the final points for the team. Andrew Velasco came out of nowhere and amazingly filled in for Jack and had an awesome race. Aakash had a great race and was constant considering the heat. An overall great race for the boys and is definitely a good start to the season.

The first race of the day kicked off with our Frosh group of boys from Brea Olinda High School. As the group of boys stampeded out from the starting line and onto the first turn, Drew Biegler led the team to victory and stuck on few people in front of him. Behind Drew was Owen Chau and Cameron Thuman who ran together. Our middle pack consisted of Jesus Damian, Colin Francois, and Carson Nienhouse. The most relentless group consisted of Jonathan Furumizo, Moises Salas, Andrew Viaes, Michael Galentine, and Isaiah Cardoza. By the last 800 meters of the race the team was fueled by whatever energy that they had left and the encouragement of their other team members fought through the dreadful fatigue and sped up to as many people as they could. Drew finished with a time of 12:20, Owen 13:05, Cameron 13:15, Jesus 13:47, Carson 15:12, Colin 15:43, Jonathan 17:14, Moises 17:36, Andrew Viaes 18:03, and Isaiah Cardoza 25:29. 
Despite the less than perfect racing conditions, the varsity team still managed to perform remarkably well. Shane Gaffikin nobly led the squad, sticking to the front of the race and managed to place 3rd overall with a time of 11:15. The rest of the varsity squad stuck together remarkably well, only having a gap of 21 seconds between the 2-7 runners. Scoring second, the well-marinated menace Jonathan Manara fought through sustained leg pains from earlier in the week, achieving a time of 11:45. Not far behind came the man, the myth, the MANNY Debarros with an impressive time of 11:51, beating his previous course record by over 30 seconds. Next came the deadly, dastardly, and devoted daredevil Ryan Daedler, who — detecting a doorway to the doorstep of the race — decided to deliberately drop a dozen or so dazed runners in a daring dash demonstration, decidedly deserving a distinguished time of 11:56. Literally half a second behind him came Matthew Apahidean, whose tumultuous thunder thighs topped off the team's scorers, earning a respectable time of 11:56.5. Closing off the squad finished Jordan Ostby and Jack Livingston, earning times of 12:01 and 12:07. Overall, the team placed third place, earning first place among the other division three schools. The team's performance at Riverside represents a great first step on the long road ahead to state. 
As the temperature rose, the last race of the day featured our JV squad racing some lit times. The team placed 2nd out of 13, and they were 32 seconds faster than last years team. Junior Luke Stratton finished 4th in the race at 12:16, quickly followed 23 seconds later by the long-haired-legend Andrew Velasco (with a kick that just might have broke the sound barrier). These two varsity-experienced runners mimicked the symbiotic relationship of the humble sea anemone and the valiant hermit crab. Also working together were Shane Park and Aakash Kadakia, both coming back from injuries that would disable most mortal men. Rounding out the top 5 was the silent assassin Jeremy Guerrero in his debut race on the Riverside XC course. “DJ” Dalman, Logan Rios, and Gunnar Cierly all ran significant pr’s from their previous races at the course. Senior Chris Furumizo, and Juniors Andrew Kim, Anthony Motts, and Chris Landreth also battled through the heat in order to have the best race possible. A special shoutout should be given to senior Logan Rios for being by-far the happiest runner out on the course last week. With a promising and experienced mix of juniors and seniors, and a dynamically changing rotation of our 6-10 runners...the JV team is looking primed and ready to drop bombs, and eat mom’s spaghetti.

Thank you for coming out and participating again this year! The athletes win for the second year in a row! Please comment if you were bib #184, 252 or 274 to be added to the results. See you next year!

Thanks to Kenny Veltre for taking pictures at today's event!