RUNNING: San Benito boys, girls claim TCAL titles

November 1, 2010

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San Benito's Vanessa Estrada led from wire to wire Saturday at
the TCAL Championships in Salinas. The Baler sophomore finished
first overall in a time of 19:10. — San Benito's Vanessa Estrada led from wire to wire Saturday at the TCAL Championships in Salinas. The Baler sophomore finished first overall in a time of 19:10.

Behind individual league titles from Vanessa Estrada and Eddie
Guzman, each of whom finished in first place at Toro Park, the San
Benito boys and girls cross country teams suppressed their nerves
and reached those expectations Saturday with matching league titles
to their name, as the TCAL hardware returned to Hollister for the
first time since 2007.
SALINAS

There was pressure, no doubt.

“There was a little pressure,” San Benito sophomore Vanessa Estrada said.

After running through the Tri-County Athletic League slate undefeated, both the San Benito boys and girls cross country teams were expected to win Saturday at the league championships in Salinas.

But for all the Baler chasing that took place during the season, not much changed at Toro Park Saturday — pressure and expectations notwithstanding.

Behind individual league titles from Estrada and Eddie Guzman, each of whom finished in first place at Toro Park, the San Benito boys and girls cross country teams suppressed their nerves and reached those expectations Saturday with matching league titles to their name, as the TCAL hardware returned to Hollister for the first time since 2007.

“They were saying, ‘We’re gonna go after Hollister. We’re gonna go after Hollister,'” Estrada recalled. “But for all those teams that were coming after us, we were gonna push it even more.”

It is the first time since 2006 that both the San Benito boys and girls teams have won the league title in the same year.

“This means a lot for Hollister, for the program,” coach Jess Morales said afterward. “I’m really touched by the way they did it.”

Morales, who was choked up after the race, later added, “It was a good team effort. I’m really proud of all the kids. This is the reason why I coach.”

San Benito took the last three weeks off from competition, and instead opted to train with uphill runs and speed workouts. The results clearly paid dividends, with Estrada’s 19:10 and Guzman’s 16:21 leading the way.

“We usually run the Monterey Bay Invitational or something else in between,” Guzman said. “I think it worked out really good.

“We were not gonna be tired for this race. Our legs were fresh.”

The Toro Park hills, coming a little over a mile into the race, is where the haves separate from the have-nots. Guzman came down the final straightaway before the hills with a sizable first-place lead, and prevented the steep approaches from affecting his cushion.

Guzman, whose previous best time this season at Toro Park was a 16:29, finished 10 seconds better than Salinas’ Max Bell.

“It’s my senior year and if I didn’t do it, it would have been a big disappointment,” said Guzman, who last year finished 12th overall in 17:04.

More important, the Balers topped the previously two-time defending champion Cowboys, 31-48.

“We didn’t want to lose it,” Guzman added. “We were expecting to win, but we didn’t want to be overconfident.

“We knew anything could happen.”

The Balers didn’t have to look any further than last year for evidence of Murphy’s Law, when they were ranked No. 6 in the Central Coast Section entering the TCAL Championships, but ended up finishing fourth in the year-end meet.

Guzman said Saturday was redemptive.

Although Salinas’ Bell (16:31) and Bryan Tena (16:32), and Gilroy’s Timothy Williams (16:34) figured into the top four spots, San Benito’s Said Hernandez (16:40) and Sergio Alcala (16:41) vaulted the Balers into the lead of the team title with fifth- and sixth-place finishes, respectively.

After Jose Castillo (16:54) took eighth for San Benito, the team needed its fifth runner to cross in order to close out the team title.

“I was thinking, I’m not gonna let these guys pass us and take it away from us,” said sophomore Ricky Esqueda, who recorded a 17:00 to finish in 11th place overall Saturday, and fifth on the Balers.

Esqueda finished one second ahead of both Roberto Cerda of Salinas and Diego Escobar of Alisal.

“We trained a lot,” he added. “We all got faster and we were still running together.”

For the Baler girls, which hadn’t won a TCAL title since 2006 but managed to snap a streak of three straight championships held by Gilroy, the clinching runner was Grace Tobias, who finished 15th overall in 21:05 — some 30 seconds faster than her previous best at the hilly Salinas course.

“We’ve been going hard the last two weeks,” she said. “We’ve been going everywhere, running hills, trying to find that last little bit of edge, and I think it helped.”

With Estrada setting the tone from the start — she led the race from wire to wire — the Baler girls paced the seven-team pack on Saturday, with Estrada, Maura Forbush and Tobias controlling the top three spots through the first mile.

“I was thinking, my goal is to win it and I was gonna do whatever it takes. I was really determined,” said Estrada, who, afterward, thanked her coaches and those who cheered her on during the course of the season.

The San Benito sophomore said she also wasn’t intimidated by Notre Dame’s Nina Anderson or Gilroy’s Athena Alarcon, who finished 1-2 at last year’s meet.

“They’re all girls like me,” Estrada said. “We’re all the same. It’s just about who wants it more. If you want it, go get it.

“I was trying to be the best … No, I wanted to be the best.”

Estrada finished 15 seconds faster than her nearest competitor, and helped lead the Balers over Alisal, 43-74.

Although the Toro Park hills spit out a different order than when the race had started — Gilroy’s Alarcon finished second in 19:25, with Notre Dame’s Anderson third in 19:37 — San Benito’s final four runners all finished within the top 15.

Forbush was fourth overall in 20:04, Megan Pape was 10th in 20:38, and Cynthia Trujillo was 13th in 20:59.

Tobias was fifth for the Balers, clinching the team title, and she owed a lot of it to her strong start.

“I think it was the best race I’ve ran all year, which is a pretty good way to end the season,” said Tobias, who noted how her faster start pushed her normal running pace to come at a point later in the event. “I pushed it longer in the beginning than I normally do.”

The statement sent by San Benito, by both the teams and the individuals, will likely reverberate at the Central Coast Section Championships in two weeks, which will again be held at Toro Park, a course Morales feels is San Benito’s home away from home.

“It’s here, so anything could happen,” he said.

Tri-County Athletic League Championships

Toro Park — Salinas

VARSITY BOYS

Team

1, San Benito, 31; 2, Salinas, 48; 3, Alisal, 59; 4, Gilroy, 84; 5, Palma, 137; 6, North Salinas, 168.