Began running and playing a variety of sports as a young child; my running career began in junior high where I posted a time of 5:24 in the mile in 7th grade. Went on to Newport Harbor High School, where I ran Cross Country and Track & Field for all four years. Some of my High School Accomplishments include:
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Cross Country:
- 3 mile personal best: 15:14
- Ran 4 years of Varsity Cross Country
- Team Captain (Senior Year)
- Most Valuable Runner (Sophomore and Senior Year)
- CIF Preliminaries (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
- CIF Finals (Senior)
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Track & Field:
- 1 Mile PR: 4:21
- 2 Mile PR: 9:34
- 800 Meter PR: 2:00
- 400 Meter PR: :53
- Ran 4 years of Varsity Track & Field
- Team Captain (Senior Year)
- Most Valuable Runner (Senior)
- CIF Preliminaries (Junior and Senior in 2 mile)
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After my high school career, I was accepted to UC Berkeley where I began my studies in Mechanical Engineering. When I am not working hard on school work, I am balancing my life with the sport of Triathlon. I joined the UC Berkeley Cal Triathlon Team at the beginning of my freshman year and have fell in love with the camaraderie and great competitive nature. During my freshman year, I had a few great performances, placing 3rd overall for the West Coast Collegiate Triathlon Conference Championships in San Luis Obispo, also my very first Olympic distance triathlon. Our team went on to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for Collegiate Nationals where our overall team placed second place. I suffered an interesting predicament while on my bike: when riding down to the transition area in the morning, I received a flat tire and was rushed, so a teammate helped me replace the tube. When I was riding in the race, at around mile 7 or 8, the tube somehow came outside of the tire on its own and was rubbing against the breaks. Normally this would never last a second in the state it was in. So I got off my bike in a horrible mood and had nothing to fix it. So I decided to lower the pressure of my tire from 120 pounds to probably around 60 or 80 psi, could have been lower. This allowed me to push the tube in slightly but not fully, but I was confident I would ride for as long as it lasted. So the next 17 miles felt like I was riding on a mountain bike with massive shocks, every time I got up to attack a slight hill it bounced. I lost 10 or so minutes on my bike, but ended up running alright and finished in the top 150 out of around 450.
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My sophomore year was a major improvement! We added a new Head Coach to our team, Coach Andy Shcmitz who is both the Head Coach for the USA Junior Nationals team but also accompanied the Olympics Triathlon team to Beijing, China in August of 2008. But onto my year, I placed in the top 5 for every triathlon I entered in conference competition. We then went to Collegiate Nationals in Tuscaloosa, AL where our mens team placed 1st Overall and our womans team placed 4th Overall to capture our team's first National Overall Title by an overwhelming margin. I placed 3rd place for our mens team under two professional triathletes: John Dahlz (11th overall) and Steve Sexton who won the Nationals Overall Mens Race and is looking to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London. I placed 19th Overall, 14th for Undergraduates, so I improved a lot from my previous Nationals experience of 136th. So overall the season was a success and if there is any more to say it is shown in my results.
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I am now in my Junior year at Cal and will be looking to improve even more. I will be a Board Member on the Cal Triathlon team as the Sponsorship Chair. I have started off my year on a good note already by entering the Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon in August and not just winning my age group 20-24, but also winning the entire race. I am looking forward for what is to come. I am going to experiment with some cycling races.
Since then I placed 3rd in my AG at AG Nationals in Portland, OR qualifying me for AG Worlds for Team USA in Gold Coast, Australia. I trained all summer out in Boulder, CO where I trained with Tim Odonnell, Matt Reed, Taylor Phinney, and many more. I recently returned AG Worlds in Australia where I placed 12th in my AG (20-24) and 32nd overall in the world for amateur. I plan to turn pro next year and begin experimenting with draft legal races.
At the moment I am looking for sponsors and support for my first professional season to come.
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