For team info, visit our team website at www.lagunabeachcrosscountry.com

Welcome to the Laguna Beach High School CROSS COUNTRY program and congratulations on the decision to join the LBHS team! Athletes on the past squads have valued the fun, excitement, and lessons learned during their time in CROSS COUNTRY and have used the discipline and self-confidence gained in our sport to also succeed in the other aspects of their lives. We want to welcome all the athletes that are joining us for the season and ask that each one of them will do the following:

1) Enjoy the experience of being on a high school athletic team.

2) Take advantage of the opportunities available in cross country to improve as an athlete, make new friends, have fun, achieve some athletic success, and mature as an individual.

3) Complete all the requirements expected of our athletes.

Our Goals:

1) Provide an enjoyable and fun experience for the athletes participating in the sport while strengthening their bodies physically and emotionally.

2) Provide the type of training that would enable each athlete to realize her/his potential.

3) Provide the type of training and motivation that would produce individual League, CIF, and state champions.

4) Help our athletes learn how to set goals and commitment.

5) Help our athletes become physically fit for a healthy and productive life.

6) Help our athletes understand the importance of team work and cooperation.

Stuart Calderwood Ran at Laguna Beach High School in the early 70's under legendary coach Len Miller.  He went on the compete at UCI.  In 1983 Calderwood took over as head coach of the Artist and lead the program to our first State Title in 1989.  

Retired Coach Recalls Winning It All, Three Times

Twenty five years ago, seven boys from Laguna Beach High School went to Fresno on Thanksgiving weekend and did what few expected: they captured the school’s first cross country state championship. “We were all absolutely shocked at what we did,” said the team’s number four runner Dave Brobeck (‘91), who went on to coach his alma mater to its other two titles in ‘04 and ’09.
“It was an incredible ride. I can’t believe it’s 25 years later,” said David Crain (‘90), who led Laguna to victory in ‘89, finishing seventh overall to become the school’s first all-State runner since the meet was established two years earlier.
Brobeck remembers “an unlikely and dysfunctional group of kids” coming together as Coach Stuart Calderwood “sort of massaged all of our egos and personalities and got us to have that singular vision.”
“[Calderwood] kept us together,” echoed Crain. “He was just really good at making us all better.”
Dave Brobeck, second from right, with his final team at their final meet, the 2009 State championship. Photos by Robert Campbell.
The Laguna seven were more than just better that fall day. They dismantled the heralded McFarland program, which went on to win nine state titles in the ‘90s, by a score of 65-127. “Everybody had to have the race of their lives to beat McFarland that day,” said Brobeck.
A number five runner for Laguna in the ‘70s, Calderwood was a teammate of national and world prep champion Eric Hulst, who put tiny Laguna Beach on the cross country map when he set three national age-group records during his freshman, junior and senior seasons.
In 1983 at age 26, Calderwood took over the boys program, a perennial underachieving team that hadn’t won a league title since 1972, when he and Hulst were freshman and the legendary Len Miller was in his final season at the helm.
And though Calderwood would occasionally share Hulst stories with his runners, the past didn’t matter to him. “What matters is building something with those five or seven kids you call varsity,” said Brobeck.
Calderwood re-built the program from the ground up, winning the ’86 Pacific Coast league title in his fourth season. Three years later, the now seasoned coach went out on top with a second league title and the state crown.
In 1998, Brobeck, now an English teacher at Laguna, had watched his beloved program fall on hard times since Calderwood left, finishing dead last in the Pacific Coast League for six straight years.
Inspired by his former coach, Brobeck set out to do a little rebuilding of his own. “I inherited a team that didn’t have matching uniforms,” he recalled.
The rookie coach knew he would never capture the degree of passion and vision that Calderwood had. “There’s no two Stuarts,” said Brobeck. “You can only really be yourself. I ultimately had my success just being comfortable with who I am around kids.”
Brobeck took Laguna from last to fifth to third to second and eventually to the program’s fourth league title in 2003. But that squad hit a bump at state and finished 14th. And for Brobeck, anything short of a state title amounted to failure. “I was really hard on myself those years,” he said.
With five of its top seven returning, including number one Max Mullender (‘05), Laguna looked strong on paper heading into the ’04 season, but no one on the team really thought they had much of a chance to win a state title. That’s because several other programs, including central-section powerhouse and defending-champs Carmel, stood in their way.

“I think that was possibly the best mind set we could’ve had,” said Mullender. “It almost seems like most teams do better when they don’t have that pressure on them.”
With all the pressure on Carmel, two seniors, three juniors and two sophomores from Laguna arrived in Fresno and handed the defending champs an unlikely six point defeat 95 to 101. “It was just an amazing day,” said Brobeck, his voice cracking as he recalled that singular moment when his guys took their place on top of the podium like he and his teammates had done 15 years before.
“The whole team came together, and each person pushed themselves beyond what we had done in the past,” said Mullender, who finished ninth overall to join Crain in Laguna’s all-State club.
Both former all-State runners competed in division one sports in college. Crain played baseball at Nebraska and is currently sales director for a medical device company in Colorado. Mullender ran track and cross country at UC San Diego and works in marketing and tech support for a southern California real estate company.
By now Brobeck naively thought he had “cracked the code” to success and would be spending many Thanksgiving weekends to come in Fresno. All he needed was a good freshman class every year.
That once-in-a-career class, the one coaches dream about, arrived in ’05. But it would take a four-year commitment from Brobeck—who now had two small children that weren’t getting any younger—to see that class through to its final destination.
Six seasoned seniors and all-State junior Matt Neev made the Breakers heavy favorites entering CIF finals in 2009. “The weight of pressure and expectation was enormous,” said Brobeck. “I was trying just to get them to calm down and run within themselves.”
When the dust settled, Laguna had run to a CIF record 27 points in a stampede over Big Bear that saw four of Brobeck’s top five finish in the top six overall, and all five scorers earned all-CIF honors for finishing in the top 15.​

It was Laguna’s first ever CIF title, something that had always alluded Brobeck. “That was personally the most satisfying race of the ‘09 year,” he said.
Even more satisfying than his second state title, which came a week later when Neev and Blake Hofmeister earned all-State honors in leading Laguna to another thrashing of McFarland 69-122.
Having accomplished everything he could as both a runner and a coach, Brobeck went out on top after the’09 season, just as Calderwood had done 20 years prior.
Brobeck still follows the sport that he gave to and got so much from for more than 25 years. And with most of the key runners returning from last years’ boys and girls squads, which each finished second at State, he likes girls’ coach Steve Lalim and his successor Scott Wittkop’s chances this season to experience the thrill of winning it all.
“I can’t wait to see what they do this year,” said Brobeck. “Everything’s in place. I just hope that it all comes through for them.”
The LBHS cross-country season begins Friday, Sept. 5, when the boys travel to San Buenaventura State Beach for the Seaside Invitational, while the girls will be in Walnut Saturday, Sept. 6 for the Mt. SAC Fastback Shootout.

Info coming soon.

The Team:
Sebastian Fisher, Zach Falkowski, Logan Brooks,
​Cal Nielson, Will Compton, Ryan Smithers, Mateo Bianchi
 

Coaches: Freddy Pichay, Tommy Newton, Scott Wittkop

9/27/2019

Laguna Beach ranks 8th over the last 4 years at the Woodbridge Invitational an unbelievable
feat for a small D4 school.  What an amazing group of young men!!!! 

1. Newbury Park High School (SS) 
1) Nico Young13:39.701
2) Jace Aschbrenner14:04.805
3) Ethan Ronk14:23.8019
4) Nicholas Goldstein14:25.6022
5) Colin Sahlman14:26.9026
Average Time: 14:12.16 Total Time: 1:11:00.80

2. Great Oak High School (SS) 
1) Gabriel Abbes14:17.5011
2) Carlos Carvajal14:20.4015
3) Tyler Tickner14:22.2017
4) Christian Simone14:23.8020
5) Aric Reza14:26.2025
Average Time: 14:22.02 Total Time: 1:11:50.10

3. West Ranch (SS) 
1) Isaiah Seidman14:18.5013
2) Evan Bates14:21.4016
3) Preston Pope14:27.9027
4) Dylan Gatua14:39.8057
5) Jack Arnold14:52.80108
Average Time: 14:32.08 Total Time: 1:12:40.40 

4. Thousand Oaks High School (SS) 
1) Michael Mireles14:17.6012
2) Mitchell Burr14:31.6034
3) Michael Cooper14:43.4068
4) Atticus Hall14:52.50106
5) Vianey Ellison14:56.00142
Average Time: 14:40.22 Total Time: 1:13:21.10 

5. Dublin High School (NC) 
1) Loic Scomparin14:07.107
2) Adrian Schroeder14:09.809
3) Christopher Middleton-pearson14:43.2064
4) Gaurav Phanse14:58.70164
5) Surya Marimuthu14:59.20169
Average Time: 14:35.60 Total Time: 1:12:58.00 

6. Long Beach Poly (SS) 
1) William Frankenfeld14:07.608
2) Ronan Mcmahon-Staggs14:28.6029
3) Thomas Fleming14:48.2083
4) Jack Raymond14:52.80109
5) Daniel Bautista15:01.90195
Average Time: 14:39.82 Total Time: 1:13:19.10 

7. Yucaipa High (SS) 
1) Justin Briscoe14:33.6039
2) Curtis Durham14:36.3046
3) Ross Harps14:49.4089
4) Joshua Weghorst14:54.20119
5) Tanner Dutchover14:58.00157
Average Time: 14:46.30 Total Time: 1:13:51.50 

8.  Laguna Beach High (SS) 
1) Logan Brooks14:24.7021
2) Sebastian Fisher14:38.8052
3) Ryan Smithers14:40.0059
4) Mateo Bianchi14:43.3066
5) Zachary Falkowski15:08.90257
Average Time: 14:43.14 Total Time: 1:13:35.70 

9/5/2019

Team: Laguna Beach Breakers
State Division: 4   CIF Section:  Southern   League: Sunset Wave
Head Coach: Scott Wittkop
Varsity Returnees from 2018 Season Finale: 2 and 4
How They Fared in 2018: Won Division 4 State Championship!

Top Returnees: Logan Brooks, Sr. (15:49/Woodward Park, 9:26.72/3200); Mateo Bianchi, Jr. (16:02/Woodward Park, 9:20.43/3200)

What Our Crystal Ball is Showing: You couldn't have scripted it any better last year. The Breakers more than held their own against the "big boys" from the larger divisions, destroyed the Woodward Park team-time course record for Divison 4 schools, then stormed to their fourth state title in program history! This year, however, their story is in its very early stages and the ending is unknown. We expected three very solid runners to return, but one opted not to run this year. As a result, Laguna Beach will have to develop plenty of sorely needed depth in the months to come. Early reports are that multiple runners are stepping up; it still might not be enough to topple a pretty solid Division 4 field. All-state runner Logan Brooks (seventh at state last year after transferring in from Florida) and Mateo Bianchi (made huge strides during track season, when he clipped 9:20 for 3200 meters) are a bonafide 1-2 punch. The group likely needs three more runners within 30-35 seconds to have a chance at repeating as state champions.

Right now then have none. Stay tuned.

8/30/2019

With Laguna Beach graduating the majority of their squad from nearly a picture perfect 2018 season, defending their title will be a tall task.  But the boys of Cathedral are back with the majority of their squad after placing fifth a year ago.  They were the 2017 Divisional and State champions and a crucial member from that squad, Tyriq Granillo will lead the Phantoms in 2019.  He was sixth at the divisional finals a year ago after placing third as a sophomore.  On paper, they are the overwhelming favorites as juniors Juan Sanchez and Bryce Granillo will also up front seeking top ten spots at the divisional finals while incoming freshman Santiago Orozco should also insert himself as a scorer.    

Can anyone challenge Cathedral?
With the rest of the top squads congested and not too far apart from one another (at least, on paper), Ocean View and Fillmore are heavy favorites to qualify for the California State Meet.  Ocean View is looking to return back to the State Meet (they were sixth a year ago) for a third straight season and are led by Miguel Flores.  Fillmore was tenth a year ago and should advance to the State Meet for the first time since 2012.   Junior Fabian Del Villar will lead the Flash in their quest in 2019.  The aforementioned Laguna Beach squad do return Logan Brooks and Mateo Bianchi, who were important cogs in the 2018 State Meet machine that set a new record on the Woodward Park course.  Meanwhile, do not count out Foothill Tech.  They are led by junior Oliver Pick (more below).  Junior Josh Villasenor will also be up front for the Dragons.     

Other squads that can sneak into the top seven?
Despite a major transfer moving away, Pioneer will be in the hunt for a State Meet berth.  JSerra, led by Anthony Grover, is looking to add depth for a return trip to Fresno.  Big Bear, Barstow and Burroughs of Ridgecrest will also looking to leapfrog some squad for a trip to Fresno.

Other Top Returners:

• JSerra's Anthony Grover suffered through a flu-bout race at the divisional finals, but emerged with the Division 4 State title a week later before qualifying for the Foot Locker Nationals a week later.  Grover then created some history on the track by qualifying for the SS Masters Meet in all three distance events!  He left the season with a resume unmatched by any other in California (1:54/4:10/9:10).  He placed fourth at the State Meet in the 1600m meters with his best of 4:10.60 and as one of the top underclassmen in the nation. 

• Laguna Beach's Logan Brooks was seventh at the California State Meet and the third fastest underclassman.  This past track season, he came away with a 4:20/9:26 resume and is the favorite to finish behind Grover.    
• Foothill Tech junior Oliver Pick is coming into the season off his Division 4 title in the 3200 meters.  He rolled to 4:26/9:32 bests.  As he was 19th at the divisional finals in 2018, he ran his race at the State Meet where he placed 20th.   
• Fillmore junior Miguel Del Villar is coming off a 4:25/9:35 track season and ready to make his way into the top five at this year's finals.  As he qualified for the Division 4 finals for the 1600 and 3200 this past Spring, he was 21st at the 2018 divisional finals.