Captain’s Log - Riverside Showcase

The beginning of the season is a testament to all of the hard work everyone puts in through the summer, and it showed on Saturday 9/2 at the Riverside showcase. There were great races all around on the Frosh/Soph side, but two notable performances were those from Carlos Perez and Ryan Daedler, running 12:16 and 12:18 for a 2.25 mile course, running close to some of the varsity times. Carlos began the race strong, but started to fade, just when Ryan Daedler made his move up and pulled Carlos along, helping him with a monster kick. The team placed 5th overall, beating rival Canyon who placed 13th.

JV is often the bread and butter of a team, and Brea JV is no different. With Seniors and Juniors, the Junior Varsity brings its experience to the table. Jack Hannum certainly benefited from his previous seasons, coming in at 13:01. Mason Harding's discipline over the summer showed, coming in second for Brea at 13:17:7. The team was buoyed by seniors Joshua Bayani and Kevin Sprague, and Junior Noah Tamagno. The combined efforts of these athletes put Brea Olinda JV in twelfth.

With the first race come the first challenges and experiences on the Varsity level. With half of the varsity squad getting their first race on the varsity level, they had a lot of gaps to fill and they did a good job of doing it. Seniors John Dempsey and Tyler Spicer both finished in the top 20 while Chris Thornburg finished just 20 seconds behind for the number three spot on the team. Shane Gaffikin and Jon Tobin finished next to each other. Shane in his first varsity race and Jon, having dealt with the flu and a hip injury during the week, both of whom had solid days with more to improve upon. Tommy Valenti, having run a solid effort of 12:10, showed he's capable of sticking to a varsity effort. Jonathan Manara rounded out the varsity squad with his first varsity race as a freshman, running a solid time of 12:15. The boys take on Texas next week at the Southlake Carroll invite to take on the best from Texas.