The Brophy cross country team finished third at the North Phoenix Invitational on Saturday with 97 points, behind ALA-West Foothills and Liberty. Junior Diego Alejos was the top finisher in 13th place (16 minutes, 33.4 seconds) with teammate Colin St. Hilaire ’27 on his heels in 16:33.8 in 14th place.
Lucas Horst ’27 placed 24th overall in 17:15.5, while Vincent Laba ’26 and Lucas Vargas ’26 were 30th and 31st overall.
Brophy won the Open race with 20 points, with nine of the top 15 and three of the top four finishers. Sophomore Spencer Nick ’28 won Open 5K medalist honors in 17:56 to win his first cross-country race by more than 25 seconds and lead the Bronco win.
Head Coach Oscar Borboa said he was encouraged by the team’s performance, noting that even runners outside the scoring five played a role in the result.
“Your sixth and seventh guys might not score points for you, but they can push other teams’ scorers back,” Borboa said. “In a way, the top five are on offense, and six and seven can play a little bit of defense.”
Borboa said that while cross country doesn’t have the same long-term rivalries as other sports, the Broncos measure themselves against perennial powers in their sectional like Liberty, Sunnyslope, and Shadow Ridge.
“The scene changes a lot year to year. Desert Vista used to be the team to beat, then Hamilton had a strong stretch, and recently Sunnyslope has been tough,” Borboa said. “But at the end of the day, we mostly compare ourselves to ourselves. If we can be the best version of us, we’ll be in a great spot.”
Borboa said the opener showed both promise and room to grow.
“We expected to be among the top teams at the meet, and it was competitive with some of the best teams in the state,” Borboa said. “It’s a good sign of the excellent summer our guys had that we could go toe-to-toe right away.”
