TCAL champs head to CCS semifinals
After winning both the boys and girls 2007 Tri County Athletic
League title last week, the San Benito High School track and field
team is gearing up for the Central Coast Section semifinals, which
take place May 19 at San Jose City College starting at 9:30
a.m.
TCAL champs head to CCS semifinals
After winning both the boys and girls 2007 Tri County Athletic League title last week, the San Benito High School track and field team is gearing up for the Central Coast Section semifinals, which take place May 19 at San Jose City College starting at 9:30 a.m.
From there, the top eight competitors from each event in the semifinals will advance to the section finals, which will take place the following Friday, May 25, at Gilroy High School.
“That’s our goal: To send as many kids as we can to the CCS finals,” San Benito High coach Iran White said. “We’re not going to win CCS. There are too many powerful schools, but we’re trying to do as well as we can.”
At the league championship at Gilroy High, the Balers had a number of dominant performances in both the boys and girls events. The win marked the sixth league title in a row for the Baler boys squad while the girls claimed the title for the first time since 2005 – the year the girls team was named the champion after Salinas High was forced to forfeit away the title as a result of recruitment infractions.
This year both Baler teams earned their league titles.
“I’m ecstatic,” White said. “This is the first year in a while that the boys entered the season as the underdogs. Palma was very powerful, and we were the underdogs in the beginning, but we always believed we could win.”
The only dual meet loss this year for the Baler boys’ squad was to the Chieftains while the girls’ team suffered its lone setback against Salinas.
“A lot of it early on was a result of injuries and losing some athletes to grades,” White said.
The key to the Boys 152-140 margin over second-place Palma could be found in the 4×100 relay race. The best time the Baler boys posted all year in that event was a 45.22. At the league finals the Balers bested that time by a single second, which didn’t seem like much but it meant a lot points wise.
“That one second only lost us two points to Palma instead of six in that event, which meant a lot in the overall meet,” White said. “I kept looking at each event and thinking that the whole meet was going to come down to about five points, but we ended up winning by more than 10. So we did a little better than the best we had hoped for – and that is what we set out to do.”
Strong performances on the day came from a slew of Baler athletes. Most notably senior Rigo Vasquez won the 800m and the 1600m and finished second in the 3200m races.
Junior Austin Schmidt captured the 110m hurdles and finished second in both the long jump and 300m hurdles to pick up valuable points for his team.
“And he did it with a bum ankle too,” White said. “All in all, it was an exceptional team effort. We scored points in 13 of the 16 events.”
Senior Josh Schroder, who was ranked No. 1 in the entire state in pole-vaulting early in the season, cleared the bar at 15 feet at Gilroy High to win the league title.
The all-time league record was 15 feet, 5 inches. Schroder attempted to clear 15 feet, 6 inches to set the record on his final attempt but just missed the mark.
On the girls’ side, the throwing events – shot put and discus – were the deciding factor in the league championship.
Senior Morgan O’ Laughlin captured the discus.
In the running events sophomore Courtney Allen had a huge day, winning the 1600m event. She also scored points for her team in the 800m, 3200m and the 4×400 relay.
“She has come a long way in just a few weeks,” White said. “She recently asserted herself as being the best.”
At the section championship, the favorites are Bellarmine, St. Francis and Los Gatos on the boys’ side and Mt. Pleasant is the strongest team to win the girls’ section title.
“The goal is to qualify as many as we can for the finals,” White said. “At CCS we will be seeing a much greater level of talent than we did at league, so we’re not expecting to win. We just want to mix it up with those schools and surprise some people.”
