Report on League Finals

The varsity boys did not achieve our goal of reaching CIF this season, but those who ran yesterday did everything they could to make it possible.  Had Kenneth not had the unfortunate injury to his foot, all he would have had to do would have been to finish one spot in front of Matt for us to qualify.  But that's just how it is in sports ...  injuries happen so we just need to build more depth in our program so that we can overcome injuries in the future.  But if someone at the beginning of the season had told me our No. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 runners would run as well as they did yesterday, I would have been ecstatic!!

Yet despite our setback, the team was not without its playoff success.  Senior Chris Baird continued his fantastic final season with a 5th place finish (15:44), qualifying as an individual for next week's CIF prelims.  The only runners to defeat Chris were Royal's 4 top runners.  Given that Royal is the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, that is a great accomplishment by Chris.

Senior Matt Schroeder also had a great final race, breaking 17:00 for the first time ever on our home course and, more importantly, absolutely giving everything he had during that race.  He could barely stand up long after the race was over.  Sophomore Brandon Severson continued his late season surge with a fine 17:13, sophomore Adam Brosh ran a solid 17:30 despite tripping and injuring himself near the beginning of the race, sophomore Sean Slavin also broke 18:00 on our home course for the first time, and Greg Stanger put on his patented 400M kick to finish in a solid 17:54 -- not bad for a soccer playing 400M runner.  Congratulations Varsity ... you gave your best despite the season-long adversity we faced.

Other fine performances were put in by our soph/frosh and jv teams, including sophomore Cameron Thomas (18:16), and freshmen Bryan Quintanilla (18:53), Ben Wolhaupter (19:32), Max Byer (19:35), Brennan Bown (19:49) and Aaron Argiso (19:51).  Congratulations also are again in order to Harrison Sobel who ran a PR of 24:35, defeating 20 other runners.

ATHLETE OF THE MEET:  Matt Schroeder

I will post the Girls Results once Coach Prater files her report, so stay tuned!