Captain's Log - League Finals

The Crestview League is one of the toughest leagues in all of Orange County, if not the state of California. The fast runners and competitive drive for success is what really pushes the runners to beat one another. Brea showed up to league finals to crush the competition and they for sure did that. The day started off with the boy’s JV race. The first two runners for Brea were Jack Hannum and Noah Tamagno. Jack Hannum ran a solid race and was Brea’s number one. He finished 3rd overall with a time of 16:22. However, the great story of the race was the performance by Noah Tamagno. Tamagno struggled all summer with an injury which carried into the season, as he struggled to break 17 all season. So determined to reach that milestone, Noah decided before the race started that he was going to stick right on Jack Hannum, no matter how much it hurt to do so. His race plan worked out perfectly. Despite a fall that left him, bloody, scratched up, and bruised at around the two mile mark, he powered through, gave ‘em the horns, and finished with a time of 16:26, earning himself a spot on the CIF state team. Also striving to break the 17 minute mark was Mason harding, who just got under with a time of 16:58. Congrats Mason! Cooper Crabtree came in 4th for Brea, pushing hard for a time of 18:05, and in his last High School cross country race, Kevin Sprague ran an impressive performance with a time of 18:25. The team finished 2nd.

The Frosh/Soph team is stacked. They will make there presence known at State in a few years. That hill at the two mile mark, you think Matthew Apahidean, Thunder Thighs himself, if gonna care about that? No he doesn’t, and neither does Ryan Daedler. Lil’ Daedler actually beat Matthew this race, coming in second overall at 16:03, with Matthew at 16:17, third overall. Carlos Perez, continuing Brea's 2-5 sweep, was close behind at 16:22. Despite only having several weeks training, Andrew Velasco came outta nowhere where, silent but deadly, running 16:25. Aakash and Ostby, coming in at 17:02.2 and 17:02.7, respectively, made a Comanche sandwich with a 17:02.5 Canyon runner. Jack Livingston, earning a 17:25, a fantastic time for a freshmen, was Brea's seventh in the frosh race

For the varsity boys League Finals is the beginning to the postseason of cross country. Our rivals, the Canyon Comanches, came to race as did we. We, sadly, came up short of defending our league champs title we have held for the last 8 years. It is by no means a disappointment, however, due to the racing that happened for our team. Tyler Spicer, having situated himself in the front pack for the majority of the race, ran an impressive 15:01 with Shane Gaffikin running 15:08. They rank 7th and 10th in school history at Yorba Regional. John Dempsey also ran a PR of 15:14and Jon Tobin came in at a time of 15:29 to show steady improvement throughout the year heading into CIF. Freshman stud, Jonathan Manara ran a PR of 15:39 to become the 2nd fastest freshman in school history on the course. Chris Thornburgh and Tommy Valenti rounded out the varsity squads with solid times of 15:41 and 15:50. The boys look to move on and improve on these performances when they take on CIF the next several weeks with the best of Division III.

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