La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) School has high hopes for this season’s cross-country teams.
Head Coach Scott Sanders and the Torreys look to replace CIF individual champ Val Christy and four-time all-CIF runner Hana Justice, who were lost to graduation.
Five other members of the defending Coastal Conference and Division IV CIF champion Lady Torreys squad are back, however. They include Coastal League champ and Division IV runner-up Lauren Pischel. Pischel last weekend won the Division II race at the Bronco Roundup at Kit Carson Park.
Jasmine Junnarkar (senior), Ariel Abbott (junior), Sasha Binderow (sophomore), and Breanna Muir (sophomore), all top-20 finishers at CIF last year, are hoping to repeat as CIF champs and improve on their 10th-place finish at States. These girls will be joined by freshman Alexis Samuels, while Jess Jacobs and Sarina Fritz should compete for the seventh varsity spot.
“Depth is again an issue for us, but I’m confident that we will be healthy and strong come November,” Sanders said.
On the boys side, LJCD suffered greatly last year after losing almost the entire varsity to graduation. This year, Sanders said the squad should be able to make some serious strides back toward a championship.
“Graduation didn’t really hurt us this year, though we did lose a couple runners to other interests,” Sanders commented. “A lot will depend on the large freshman contingent, who are very athletic and competitive.”
Alex Fleischhacker, Dennis Roth, Vinny Pujji and Jason McCallum have already made their way on to the varsity for the Torreys. Recently, Fleischhacker and Roth set school records for the freshman race at the Wolfpack Invitational, while Pujji and McCallum finished in the Top 20.
Returning varsity runners are Alex Poyhonen (sophomore), Stephen Migdal (senior), Ben Fleischhacker (senior) and Jake Eliasberg (sophomore).
“With so many freshmen on the two squads, it’s really hard to say what things will look like in November when it matters most,” Sanders added. “But we’re off to a great start and I’m very optimistic that the girls have a shot at winning their seventh straight Coastal and CIF championships, and I have no doubt that the boys will consistently show that they are much improved over last year.”