Two of the best athletes at San Benito High happen to be second cousins.
The families of Marisa Villegas and Shraee Harrison were in Clovis over the weekend for the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High.
With an announced crowd of just under 8,000, California can make a strong case for not only having the most well attended state meet, but also the best high school track and field talent in the nation.
“The atmosphere was awesome,” said Villegas, who finished 18th out of 29 runners in the 1,600-meter run in a time of 5:00.39 on Friday in the preliminaries (the top 12 advanced to Saturday’s finals). “When I got there, I couldn’t help but smile seeing all those amazing athletes and thinking I was going to run with them. I was so ready and just couldn’t believe I was there.”
Villegas, who just completed her sophomore year, had a season for the ages. She won a record-breaking four individual events at the Monterey Bay League Championships, then followed that up with a strong second-place showing in the 1,600 at the CCS Championships.
Villegas said she’ll use her first experience at state as a valuable learning experience. Running against some of the best distance runners in the country, Villegas was blocked in the entire time. She was bumped, elbowed and spiked, things that happen routinely in elite competition.
“It was definitely a learning experience,” Villegas said. “I’ve had some meets where I’ve gotten spiked and kind of tripped up a bit, but it was worse at the state meet. Luckily I didn’t fall, and it was a battle to get in the place you wanted to be. That’s what I’ll take in mind from this experience, that it’s not like a league meet where you have space in between each runner. Everyone is fighting, and I have to take that same mentality and use it in the coming years.”
In the 1,600 and 3,200 events, runners get physical to get in position. No one wants to get boxed in the middle or the back of the pack, because it would take too much energy to pass multiple runners and then hold all of them off to the finish line.
Villegas would love nothing more than to make a repeat trip to state in her final two years of high school.
“The atmosphere is so great that a little bit of nerves hit you,” she said. “But the adrenaline you feel is something else, and I had a ton of family supporting me. I couldn’t have asked for anything else. It was probably the best experience I’ve had athletically.”
Despite having to pull out of one of the two events he qualified to state in, Harrison said he had a tremendous experience as well. Harrison, who recently completed his junior year, ran a 49.84 in the 400 to finish sixth in the second of three heats of the event.
Harrison didn’t run the preliminaries in the 200 after experiencing pain in his hip after completing the 400.
“My legs felt super heavy during the 400, and they just wouldn’t move,” he said. “I didn’t feel good running, and my hips were bothering me during (the 200) warm-ups. The pain didn’t go away, and I decided it was best to pull out.”
Despite the disappointment of having to pull out of the 200 and finishing with a subpar time in the 400—by his lofty standards, of course—Harrison said he had a great experience in Clovis.
“It was cool to see the competition,” he said. “I didn’t go as fast as I wanted to, but I enjoyed being out there.”
It was a season to remember for Harrison, who won the 400 and finished second in the 200 at the Central Coast Section Championships.
However, Harrison said the highlight of his season was at the MBL Championships, where he overtook four or five runners in the 4×400-relay race on the anchor leg to win going away. The sheer display of speed wowed everyone in attendance.
“It was great,” he said. “My mind just went blank as I ran. I just passed all these dudes and did what I could. It was a nice season for me because I progressed pretty well. Next year I want to come back to state with a vengeance. I’m motivated by seeing great competition, and I feel I can post some very fast times next year.”
Harrison said he’ll take a month off to recover from the track season and get his hip back to normal. In previous off-seasons, Harrison focused on basketball. However, Harrison said he’ll mix in plenty of track work this summer, knowing he has to focus on improving his explosiveness out of the starting blocks to dramatically effect his times, especially in the 200.
Villegas said being able to share the state experience with her family and Harrison’s family made things all the more rewarding.
“Our families are together a bunch,” she said. “To be together at state was awesome. What more can you ask for when my cousin is right there with me in competition, and I’m there for him. Those are moments you remember.”
