Alumni Race / Time Trials - Fri. Sep. 3 

 

After a blistering hot summer, the team was relieved to be greeted with cooler temperatures for the annual time trials and alumni run held at Pioneer High School on Friday morning.  Only one alumnus was able to make the race:  Jonathan Diep joined the team on the 5K course.  The Pioneer men’s numbers were reduced somewhat, due to several runners being out with injuries, but there were some exciting performances on the course today.

Senior captain David Torres led the race early, accompanied for a while in the first mile with Jon Diep, Tyler Leach, and Dean Brigham.  David eventually stretched out his lead to almost a full minute ahead of the others, winning handily and making it look effortless.  This sets a new personal record for David.  It’s great to have him back from last year’s injured list!  Second to finish was sophomore Tyler Leach, and sophomore Dean Brigham did a great job keeping Tyler in his sights, finishing third.  PR for Dean...congratulations!  Jon Diep stayed strong, moved with the leaders, and came in fourth place.

Just behind the frontrunners, there was a pack of runners who stuck together and helped push each other’s pace as the race progressed.  There is a lot of talent to be developed over the season here, it was exciting to see how well they supported each other’s efforts.  Senior captain Noah Kaczor showed his leadership for the younger runners, bringing them together through the first and second miles.  Noah completed the race in fifth position overall, followed very shortly by freshman Eddie Codrington, who had close on his heels freshman Costa Willets.  Congratulations to these two frosh for a top ten finish!  This, their first run for Pioneer, establishes their personal record.  Sophomores Boris Burman, Lee Criso, and Galen Burrell finished out the top ten.  Nice work, gentlemen!  Galen is new to Pioneer High, he just moved from Colorado.  Welcome to the team, Galen.

Rob Frakes, another of the large group of sophomores, came in eleventh overall, with a fast kick at the end of the race.  Stephen Doll, a junior, came in twelfth and Dan Fonte came in thirteenth.  Two more sophomores completed the top fifteen:  Zach Fogel and Nick Auckerman.  Good effort, guys.

Freshman Ancel Kalakailo, ran his first race on the team, establishing his personal record and coming in 16th.  Josh Sherick, back from band camp ready to run, finished 17th.  Sam Christensen ran track in the spring as a freshman; welcome to Cross Country, Sam.  Sam and Michael Taylor had an exciting push to the finish line, Sam just edging out Michael for 18th place, Michael establishing his new PR and a 19th place finish.  Josh Bender, new to Cross Country this season, a sophomore, came in 20th.  Exchange student Philipp and freshman James Oh set their records and finished out the racing for today’s time trials. 

Tough sport?  We’ll see all these guys steadily improve over the season and look forward to having everyone healthy and running soon.  Good luck, Pioneers! 

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