Santa Barbara’s Briggs Deardorff brushed aside any pre-season cobwebs on Friday, racing to an eighth place finish at the Seaside Invitational in a time that he beat only once last year.
Deardorff, a junior, dusted off the 5k course in 16 minutes and four seconds, a time that was only a second off his best time of from last year.
“He had a real nice opener,” credited Dons head coach Olivia Perdices, who’s getting her team ready for the first Channel League Meet on Sept. 22.
Senior Brianna Lopez was the fastest girls runner for the Dons, completing the circuit in 20:40. Perdices called Lopez, who is running cross country for the first time this year, a “big boost” to the team. Veteran Ana Cowgill came through with a 41st place finish with a time of 21:03.
Freshman James Scheuermann placed 26th against other ninth graders in this age-group formatted meet. Fellow freshman Eric Woods and Scheuermann both recorded top-50 finishes in under 20 minutes.
On the girls side, Elli Harb led the Dons freshmen in 60th with a time of 23:45. Bella Weininger was close behind in 79th.
