Captain's Log - Preview

League Preview gives the athletes a chance to run the league finals course and gauge their performance a few weeks before the race takes place.
The JV team dominated the race as 4 of our guys finished in the top 6. The JV was led by Ryan Daedler, who, despite a small injury during the week, pulled off a 16:00 and won the race from start to finish. Not too far was Andrew Velasco, running a time of 16:28 and showing how injuries don't even faze him anymore. Once again the duo of Aakash Kadakia and Miguel Andrade came in with times of 16:52 and 17:04, both working together to achieve new PRs.  Chris Furumizo finished off the team score coming in at 18:22 and showing how sub 18 is just a few races away. John Root raced through the pain of shin splints and finished with an impressive time 18:38. The JV team was finished off by Angel Fuerte and Logan Rios who ran 19:57 and 20:16, looking strong for the season. Overall the JV team looks very strong and will no doubt destroy their competitors when it comes to League Finals.

In the Frosh/Soph race, Jack Livingston and Luke Stratton led the race from start to finish, with Luke beating his teammate in the end by only a few seconds to get him a 16:55 and a first place, Jack ran 16:58 and placed second. Next came Brandon Kuo, flexing his strength over his main rival, Shane Park. Brandon came in 7th place with a time of 17:28, 40 seconds faster than Shane’s 18:08. Finishing off the top 5 for Brea was Jeremy Guerrero, with a massive 70 second PR taking him to a time of 19:05. Next came Benji Garner, with an even larger 90 second PR at 19:32. Behind him at 20:08 was Anthony Motts, followed by Evan Gomez at 20:20 with a 55 second PR. Eric Lee at 22:12 with a 45 second PR, Jaden Rios at 23:41 with a PR, Andrew Kim at 25:18, Carson Nienhouse at 27:13, and Thomas Park at 28:08. The team came in second, but with three already in the top ten and several PRs, the future looks promising for them.
At the end of the day, the Varsity proved to be a force to be reckoned with by placing 1st for the day. Shane Gaffikin ran a time of 15:19 and scored 3rd place for the team. Jonathan Manara (15:31. 8th), Matthew Apahidean (15:34. 10th), and Jack Hannum (15:32. 9th) proved to be the ultimate pack and truly symbolized during this race that sticking with a pack always leads to massive success. Placing 3rd in state last year mostly derived from sticking as a pack so seeing our team achieve this strategy early is truly outstanding. Manny Debarros (16:01. 19th) and Carlos Perez (16:14. 21st) also scored incredible PRs and placements with both athletes edging closer and closer towards that sub 16 mark. The Varsity team truly did an outstanding job and their success now is definitely going to pay off later down the road towards gaining back that League title.