Captain's Log - Brea Invite

The Brea Invitational is a different race than most. Unlike most other invites, it is a full five kilometers, and includes challenging terrain and a demanding hill. Instead of the standard frosh/soph, jv, and varsity races, the field is split up into the top two, three through five, and six plus athletes of the underclassmen and upperclassmen. This gives some of the athletes who usually finish somewhere in the middle of a race the chance to lead and win. 

The Brea Invitational Proved that the frosh/soph team had capability towards reaching for success, with the frosh/soph level placing sixth out of thirty three teams during the Brea Invite. Luke Stratton with a time of 17:28 dominated the downhill stretch achieving a placement of fifth in total for the frosh/soph division. Not to far behind him was Jack Livingston with a time of 18:14 crushed his opponents and succeeded in not getting doomed by the maleficent hill. Shane Park and Brandon Kuo worked together to achieve 18:45 and 18:50, showing that both of them together truly form an unstoppable duo. Jeremy Guerrero with a time of 19:36 plus unknowingly and awesomely subbing 19 for the 3 mile at the same time truly turned out to be incredible success. Benji Garner also pulling off a similar achievement to Jeremy gained a time of 20:08 with a 3 mile time of 19:29. Evan Gomez, getting a time of 20:40, barely got close to going under 20 minutes in the 3 mile but still was successful at getting not only a pr but an incredible race. Anthony Motts (22:11), Andrew Kim (22:18), Eric Lee (22:34), Carson Nienhouse (26:40), Thomas Park (28:38) and Chris Landreth (23:54) also preformed incredible PRs, showing their capability of being elite athletes. The Brea Invite truly was a success for our younger athletes and their potential will continue to shine for the 5k in the near future. 

The Varsity team had an impressive showing even with Shane Gaffikin sitting out, coming in third overall. Jonathan Manara and Ryan Daedler ran the 1-2 race together, subbing seventeen minutes with times of 16:53 and 16:57, respectively. Jack Hannum, although in a different race, was only a few seconds behind at 17:01, which got him third in his race. Also in the 3-5 race was Matthew Apahidean, finishing only nine seconds later at 17:10. The open spot on varsity gave Manny DeBarros the chance to move up from the frosh/soph to varsity level, and he finished with a time of 17:31. Carlos Perez, determined to win and to take back his spot on the varsity level, led and won his race,6-7+, with a time of 17:28. Rounding off the varsity top 7 was Andrew Velasco, overcoming injury and the odds to finish just under 18 minutes with a time of 17:52. 

The JV squad also performed remarkably through the tough hills and grueling 5k course. With the support of past Brea runners, Vice Captain Cooper Crabtree and Group 2 founder Noah Tamagno, the JV team was able to run some incredibly fast times and outrun the competition. Miguel Andrade ran up with Velasco and kept with him to finish with a time of 18:18. Following him, Aakash Kadakia came in with a time of 18:27, finishing 21st. Jordan Ostby, the up and coming Alex Fong level photographer, ran an impressive time of 18:40. Behind him was John Root, who continued to fight through his injuries and finished strong with a time of 18:59. Chris Furumizo ran hard from start to finish coming in with a time of 19:54. Last but certainly not least, The team was rounded off by Angel Fuerte and Logan Rios with times of 21:47 and 23:59.