Brayden Pernitza '26 Recruiting Profile

When I was in the summer of my 8th grade year I was just laying around the house when my mom told me that I had to get up and go out and do something. I ended up saying that I don't want anything so then my mom signed me up for cross country and she told me that I had to do it. I went to my first practice that summer and I was really scared because I had never run before in my life. The coach welcomed me but I had still felt like I didnt belong there. Then I went to my first meet and I fell in love with running. I think I ran 2 miles in like 15:00 but I just had so much fun that I knew this is what I wanted to do. So I started training extra hard because I knew i could do something really good that year. I ended the year up with a 20:40 5k and I was so happy and proud of myself. I then came up to the spring season and I didnt know what I wanted to do because I had played baseball for 8 years but I just loved cross country so much that I chose track over baseball. That season was a very difficult but very very fun season. I just couldn't wait for cross country again. My sopomore year was very rough for cross country I felt like I was making no progress. I ran 4 or 5 races where I finished with a time of 20:05-20:00 it was making me so mad because my goal for that year was to break 20 and I didnt. My sopomore year of track was much better I ended the year with a school record in the 4X800 as the opening leg. I broke 5:20 in the mile that year and I broke 12 in the 2 mile that season. That summer I knew I could do something special in cross country so I didn't even take time of after track and ran all the way through the summer I hit 42 miles a week on average and I was feeling good going into the season. My opening race was a terrible 23:00 I felt terrible and though all that work was for nothing. Then I went to the next meet and ran 19:45. I was so happy that I cried going over the line and I've never felt so happy. so after that race my goal was to break 18:30. The very next race I ran a 18:58. I was so happy I thought I was gonna get it right away but it wasn't till the last race of the season that I ended up getting my goal and I ran of 18:08. Now I'm in my preparation for track and cross. My track goals are to break 5 in the mile I want to break 11 in the 2 mile and go 2:05 in the 800. And I want to break 17 in the 5k this cross season coming up