He Runs Hard for Success : Track: Brethren Christian’s Pacheco makes running the 800 and 1,600 look easy.

Brethren Christian’s Brandon Pacheco has not only made himself a Southern California distance runner to be reckoned with this season, but he has put his school’s track program on the map.

Pacheco has emerged as one of the state’s finest middle distance runners and one of Orange County’s biggest surprises.

Pacheco, a senior, burst onto the scene in mid-March with two personal-best times in the Bronco Invitational at Cal Poly Pomona. He ran 1 minute 52.8 seconds to win the 800 meters, a five-second improvement from his previous best in a dual meet with Long Beach Jordan earlier in the year.

That time moved him among the area’s elite, equaling the 24th-best performance turned in by an Orange County athlete in the event.

Pacheco then came back to complete the tough double with a 4:04.3 in the 1,500, logging yet another victory and a four-second improvement in the process.

“I was planning on running fast in the 800,” Pacheco said. “I had planned on coming through the 400 in 55 (seconds), but the guy who was leading ran 54, so I just went with him and stayed relaxed and ran hard.”

Running hard is something Pacheco has been doing since he took up the sport three years ago as a freshman at Brethren Christian. He had to run hard to try to catch his older brother, Bryan, now a sophomore at UC Irvine.

“As a freshman, my goal was just to run with my brother,” Pacheco said.

Success came slowly, as he posted “mid-18 minute” times for three miles in cross-country as a freshman, then found his calling on the track, where he turned in a 4:47 in the mile in his first year.

“After I ran cross-country and started to get in the 18s, I said, ‘Well, I’ll go see if I like track now,’ ” Pacheco said.

“He has always had a great work ethic,” Brethren Christian Coach Ed Cashman said of Pacheco. “He really has worked hard and it’s starting to pay off.”

Last weekend, Pacheco, 5 feet 9 and 134 pounds, again took a chunk of time off of his county-leading time of 4:22.4 in the mile. He ran away with the 1,600 at the Trabuco Hills Invitational with a 4:19.7 performance, lowering his school record again.

Pacheco’s road to the top has not been without its share of success, as he has garnered a few honors along the way.

Last fall, Pacheco placed eighth in the State Division IV race in Fresno’s Woodward Park, and won his heat of the rated mile in the Sunkist Indoor Invitational at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in February.

As a junior, Pacheco won the Southern Section Division IV 1,600 title, holding off Fillmore’s Oswaldo Servin by two-tenths of a second to finish in 4:27.01.

Pacheco also took second in the Division IV 800 as a junior--clocking 1:59.10--and fifth as a sophomore.

“It’s a hard double, but I’m going to do it,” Pacheco said of his goal to race in the two events at season’s end.

Said Cashman: “He really wants to go after them both and if anybody can do it, it’s him.”

Although Pacheco has the ultimate task of running the races, he has great help in his preparation for the double from Fred Schermerhorn, father of standout long sprinter Eric Schermerhorn.

“He loves to run and the end product is proof of that,” Fred Schermerhorn said. “A lot of kids have more talent than they think but Brandon doesn’t set any limits on himself.”

Schermerhorn’s help has paid off in the form of attention from college recruiters, as Pacheco has received numerous letters of interest.

Heading his list is USC, where Pacheco, who carries a 3.2 grade-point average, hopes to continue his academic and athletic careers in the fall. Cal Poly Pomona, San Francisco and Nebraska also have expressed interest.

“He is probably the best student of the game that I have ever coached,” Schermerhorn said.