Cross-country: Reiser shines for Brethren Christian
ORANGE — It’s always interesting to see how someone will respond when their back is against the wall.
With the program having been resurrected four years ago, Brethren Christian High’s cross-country team hasn’t found itself in too many of those pressure situations.
That enviable position was afforded to Warriors senior Gabriel Reiser.
If he did not perform to his potential, his time in high school cross-country was history. Instead, he made it.
Reiser punched his ticket to the CIF Southern Section Preliminaries by placing sixth in the Academy League Finals at Irvine Regional Park on Thursday afternoon.
He posted a time of 16:27 to secure the final possible spot available to individual hopefuls. The top five positions went to race winner St. Margaret’s and runner-up Crean Lutheran.
“It’s exciting,” Reiser said. “It’s my first time as a senior, so it’s a good time to get it. All of my teammates are here. I’m pumped.”
Reiser is the school’s first representative in CIF since Brethren Christian made it as a team out of the Olympic League in 1996, according to records referenced by Warriors coach Deryl Dyson after the race.
One-by-one, teammates approached Reiser to congratulate him on his signficant feat.
Dyson began his tenure as the Warriors’ coach in 2013, beginning with 11 kids, including Reiser. After earning a berth into CIF, Reiser hopes that he has inspired more to join cross country at his school.
“It’s fun to be the first [of Dyson’s runners],” Reiser said. “That just means a lot of people are going to come behind me and get it next because now they have someone to look up to.”
His coach weighed in on his marked improvement from a year ago.
“I think he ran 16:58 [ninth] last year, so the race was much faster,” Dyson said of Reiser. “Last year’s time wouldn’t have gotten him anything. He had to battle towards the end.”
“It’s awesome. Makes it worthwhile.”
Nic Gitter won the race in 15:53 for St. Margaret’s, which clipped Crean Lutheran, 28-33, for the boys’ team title.
Sage Hill’s boys qualified by taking fourth. Greg Suhr paced the Lightning, coming in at 16:56 for 14th.
St. Margaret’s wound up sweeping the meet by upsetting Sage Hill’s girls, 41-47. It was an outcome that even Tartans’ coach Patrick Bendzick couldn’t predict.
“No,” Bendzick said firmly when asked if he expected the result. “We have two returning runners from last year, so we rolled in a whole new group with four freshmen again who have never run before.”
“Sage [Hill] is a great, well-coached team. We just tried to chip away a little bit each time.”
The scoring five for St. Margaret’s were Julia Martin, Charlatte Jones, Audrey Larson, Daisy Sellas, and Anika Grover.
Consecutive Tartans crossed the finish line on three different occasions, revealing the team’s plan to run as a pack.
“The girls did a good job of communicating on the race course and really looking out for each other,” Bendzick said. “If there was someone struggling, there was a teammate there to help drive them back into position.”
Sage Hill’s girls were visibly disappointed with the result. The Lightning were seeking their first league championship since 2011.
Lightning coach Nate Miller chose to look at the bright side after both of his teams made it to CIF.
“We’re always happy about advancing to CIF,” he said. “We’ve been doing that pretty consistently over the last 12-14 years. We’re happy about that for sure.”
Sage Hill’s girls had five underclassmen in their starting seven on Thursday. That fact, combined with St. Margaret’s youth movement, has some excited about future battles between the teams.
“I think it’s going to be an ongoing rivalry for sure,” Miller said. “I think this gives us motivation to train in the spring, the summer, and come back next year and give them a good fight.”
“I think they’ll be fired up for the next couple of meets, too, when we see them again.”
Sage Hill entered the week ranked third in CIF-SS Division 5. St. Margaret’s was fifth.
BOYS CROSS COUNTRY
Academy League Finals
At Irvine Regional Park
3-mile course
Team Results
1. St. Margaret’s 28; 2. Crean Lutheran 33; 3. Whitney 97; 4. Sage Hill 106; 5. Brethren Christian 139; 6. Oxford Academy 159; 7. Calvary Chapel 195
Individuals
1. N. Gitter (St. Margaret’s) 15:53; 2. Smith (St. Margaret’s) 15:55; 3. Weiss (Crean Lutheran) 16:06; 4. Graham (St. Margaret’s) 16:24; 5. Bilotta (Crean Lutheran) 16:26; 6. Reiser (Brethren Christian) 16:27; 7. Odenwald (Crean Lutheran) 16:30; 8. Miller (Crean Lutheran) 16:31; 9. L. Gitter (St. Margaret’s) 16:39; 10. Kochan (Crean Lutheran) 16:46
GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
Academy League Finals
At Irvine Regional Park
3-mile course
Team Results
1. St. Margaret’s 41; 2. Sage Hill 47; 3. Whitney 72; 4. Crean Lutheran 81; 5. Oxford Academy 114; 6. Calvary Chapel 158; 7. Brethren Christian 208
Individuals
1. Hess (Crean Lutheran) 19:11; 2. Martin (St. Margaret’s) 19:54; 3. Jones (St. Margaret’s) 19:55; 4. Scott (Whitney) 19:59; 5. Jaffe (Sage Hill) 20:06; 6. Carroll (Sage Hill) 20:10; 7. Larson (St. Margaret’s) 20:22; 8. Sellas (St. Margaret’s) 20:25; 9. Warden (Sage Hill) 20:31; 10. Hamakawa (Whitney) 20:32; 33. Timblin (Brethren Christian) 22:55
