Braves Produce Top Team Time at Bell Gardens

On a day when the varsity Braves were looking for a sign of better things to come they instead found themselves receiving mixed reviews for their performances. While the mixed reviews were justified one has to only take a closer examination to find that in running the top team time at this year's Bell Gardens Invitational as well as running their best team time to date this season the Braves did in fact find a sign of better things to come. Although shaky in some areas of their squad including race focus and strategy the Braves managed to come together to establish a 1-5 man gap of only 38 seconds - a seasonal best accomplishment.

Junior Victor Bonilla stayed true to order as he again raced as the team's number one man. Seemingly still not recovered fully from whatever hindered him at last weeks Clovis Invite, Bonilla still managed a solid time in placing 2nd in the junior race while admittedly not being as aggressive as he could have. Junior Tim Barreto was seemingly running in the doldrums of a comfortable pace for the first mile, but then awoke in time to make a move while tying his personal best on the season to finish fourth in the junior race. Senior Jonathan Batres made a calculated move just past the one mile mark in the senior race to take the lead - however he could not respond to the counter move put on by two runners from Montebello and faded to fourth place. His time of 16:00 is a huge seasonal personal best and he's improved every race he's run in since competing in this his first consistent season - his improvement could sky rocket towards the end of the year. Junior Justin Martinez wallowed with fellow junior Barreto during the first mile, but was unable to respond or duplicate the move that his team mate did. Martinez finished in 6th place in the junior race. The biggest surprise to the squad this season has been sophomore Brett McCoy. Running in the mid 18 minute region last year McCoy improved by almost two minutes to finish in a personal best time of 16:21 to place 6th in a strong sophomore race.

The Braves will next challenge the hills of Mt. San Antonio College as the compete in the Mt. SAC Invitational.