8/6/16 BOYS POST RACE NEWSLETTER (MATTERN RUN)

The captains will be putting together a post race newsletter after each run.  This is the first of many newsletters to come. Thanks captains!
       The Brea frosh-soph team did not disappoint in their debut race of the season.  Powered by Nolan Orozco, Adan Villanueva, and Mathew Apahidean, Brea’s frosh-soph team looked nothing short of impressive.  Nolan Orozco, Brea’s first sophomore to finish the race, ran an impressive pace of 5:30 finishing 12th overall.  Closely following Orozco was fellow sophomore Adan Vilanueva placing 14th and running a pace of 5:32.  Top freshman Mathew Apahidean showed off his extreme determination and willpower, outkicking sophomore Mason Harding and finishing 18th overall.  His 6:00 flat pace is an outstanding time considering the hilly course.  Matthew placed 1st among freshman at the Kramer time trials and overly met expectations with an outstanding performance at the Mattern Run.  With the frosh-soph team looking as strong as ever, we can expect Brea to be a powerful force in the many years to come.

This Saturday when I watched all of our runners barrell through the finish line, I was amazed at the talent that this year’s team will be bringing to the table. Some noteworthy times were that of Mason Harding who just missed sub 14 with a time of 14:00 and Jack Hannum’s time of 14:16. These two sophomores have been putting in the mileage and the results are clearly showing. However, one performance in particular awed me the most. It was that of Josh Bayani, who after being plagued with injury almost the entirety of last year, worked himself back into shape like a subtle beast. Off on the sideline, while the entire team was preoccupied with training, Josh thirsted to retain his vigor. No matter how much biking and core and stretching he would do, Josh was never satisfied with his fitness. Josh’s persistence and passion was what led him to his success. Because Josh is so dedicated to the program, he was able to overcome his setback, and I know for a fact that he will do incredible this season even if he has doubts himself. Josh should be an inspiration to anyone who is injured or faces any obstacle in life, because it proves that you can achieve anything even with major setbacks in life.​

Even though it is the beginning of the 2016 season, the future is promising. A word to describe the performances of the athletes on varsity in this year’s Mattern Alumni Run is scary. Scary as in scary for the teams that are going to have to face us throughout the season because each and every athlete look ready to compete and have crazy seasons. Even though the alumni happened to beat the team by a score of 23-32, the performances by the top 5 of the race, Caleb Myers, Jon Tobin, Daniel Perez, Kevin Mcnulty, and John Dempsey proved to be very fast as well as the performances by possible varsity athletes Nolan Orozco, Drew Apahidean, and Dylan Pearlson It comes to show that the team is going to be loaded and be a top contender, not only in the state, but in the nation as well. Even without one of out top runners Gio Orellano and another probable varsity runner in Tyler Spicer, the team still performed extremely wild and are going to be primed for a stellar year with the hopes of winning state and attending NXN for the 2nd time in 3 years.

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