Junior Varsity summary

The Pioneer JV avenged the Varsity’s disappointing 3^rd place finish with confidence and determination.  Pioneer claimed 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places, and the top five JV runners all crossed the finish line in under 19 minutes.  The JV team scores gave Pioneer a 16 point margin over Saline and a 49 point advantage over Dexter. (This race was not officially scored.)

Pioneer junior David Wallington grabbed the lead very early in the race and PR’d by an amazing 43 seconds in his 1^st place finish (17:25), his first individual win for Pioneer. Congratulations David!

Sophomore Nate Karr was back at 100% for this race, claiming 2^nd place for Pioneer in 17:35, just 10 seconds behind Wallington, and dropping 9.3 seconds from his PR.  It’s great to see Nate once again running unhampered by injuries, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that he has a healthy & speedy season for Pioneer.

Sophomore Andy Sanz-Guerrero was the third man in our 1-2-3 finish.  His time was 17:49 - not a PR for him, but 15 seconds faster than his time at Kensington, and a healthy 13 seconds ahead of the 4^th place runner (a Saline Hornet).

Pioneer’s 4^th man was junior Neil Keicher, who took 7^th place in 18:29.  Neil also has a lot of potential, but was hampered by injuries last year.    Senior Kinshuk Rajan continues to run well, and competed our scoring with his 14^th place finish and a time of 18:53.

Sophomore Aaron Trierweiler (18^th) finished in 19:04, not far from his 2006 PR time.  Junior Julius Theophilus (24^th) dropped 2 seconds from his Kensington time for a new PR of 18:18, and sophomore Kevin Chaperon (25^th) finished right behind him in 19:19.  German exchange student Robin Nitzer (28^th) made quite an impression with his debut time of 19:23 – welcome!  Niko Rombes (34^th) dropped 13 seconds from his PR to finish in just 19:34.  Junior Hayden Spitzley (35^th) ran his first race of the season and finished in 19:35, not far from his PR.  Sophomore Mike Sullivant dropped 15 seconds from his PR to drop under the 20-minues mark for the first time with his 19:53 finish – good job!

Sophomore Joe Frakes continues to show good potential, finishing in 54^th place with a time of 20:27.  David Torres (63^rd) dropped 32 seconds from his PR for a finish time of 20:48.  Senior co-captain Jacob Whiten (70^th, 20:53) led a tightly-packed group of Pioneers, including sophomore Aaron Kurz (72^nd, 20:55), running in his first meet of the season, junior R.J. Marable who dropped an amazing 2:49 from his PR to finish 73^rd in 20:56, and sophomore Lucas Arias who lowered his PR by 21 seconds to claim the 74^th spot in 21:00.

Sophomore Jonathan Diep placed 83^rd (21:13) in his first race of the season and sophomore Ben Aukerman followed in 86^th place (21:20).  Gabe Crisman (22:16), John Fontes (22:19), and Manuel Akard (24:12) continued to gain experience.  Also improving as they gained more race experience were: Noah Kaczor, who knocked 54 seconds from his PR to finish in 22:54, Eric Seitz who dropped an amazing 4:53 from his PR to finish in 23:55 and Zack Keller, who dropped 52 seconds from his PR to finish the race in 27:19.  Way to go!

Many of our newest runners showed significant improvement although the JV race didn’t begin until 6:00pm, after a long, tiring school day.  We will be watching for continued improvement as they run in more Saturday meets after a good night’s sleep.  Keep up the good work JV!

Pioneer JV