JACKIE HENDERSON INVITE

The opening weekend of the 2026 season was a good one.

Twenty-two Breakers made the trip to the Jackie Henderson Invitational on Saturday, and when it was over, there was a lot to celebrate.

In the boys race, four of the top five overall finishers were wearing Breakers blue and white. 8th grader Ben Hatfield led the group, crossing first for PGMS in 12:03. A Scotts Valley runner took second, but that's where the gap ended. 7th grader Josiah Traback came through in 12:15 for third, 8th grader Callum Gamble in 12:20 for fourth, and fifth came down to the wire.  7th grader Noel Strom ran down the fifth-place runner in the final 50 feet of the race and leaned across the line in 12:24 to seal it. Four Breakers in the top five, in the first meet of the year.

On the girls side,  8th grader, Ellie Findlay made her season debut count.  With an effortless stride, she took third overall in 14:07. Even more impressive than the medal is that every time Ellie has run against the clock, she has gone faster than ever before. She has currently dropped her average mile time down 19 seconds from the beginning of the season. She is one to keep your eye on this year. 

Everyone Got Faster

Here's what five weeks of work looks like.

Nearly every Breaker who ran on Saturday averaged a faster pace per mile over two miles than they ran for a single mile back on August 10. The individual numbers tell the story. 6th grader Justin Yang went from an 8:15 mile in August to a 6:58 average at the invite. 6th grader Liam Harris dropped from 8:38 per mile to 7:46. 6th grader Jessica Hattori ran a 7:59 per-mile average in her first race ever, she didn't just beat her opening day mile of 10:30, she crushed it by more than two and a half minutes per mile, across twice the distance. 8th grader Mia Papadakis knocked a minute and 33 seconds per mile off her August pace. 6th grader Dahlia Mitchell improved by over a minute per mile. 7th grader Charlotte Lorch took 52 seconds per mile off hers. Tavi Varajic, Ellie Salameh, and 7th grader Ellis Li all did the same.