Baler girls cross country advances to state for first time while
water polo teams ousted
By way of its second-place finish at the Central Coast Section
championships the San Benito High girls cross country team is going
to the state championships
– for the first time in school history.
Baler girls cross country advances to state for first time while water polo teams ousted
By way of its second-place finish at the Central Coast Section championships the San Benito High girls cross country team is going to the state championships – for the first time in school history.
“I’m very thrilled,” Baler girls cross country coach Josh Morales said. “This was the best team that we ever had in Hollister. The week before the meet they had us ranked seventh or eighth in the section then dropped us down to 15th. We were ranked No. 5 in Division I. Nobody gave us a chance when we showed up, but we always had high expectations for this team.”
The Balers finished second only to CCS powerhouse Carlmont, which captured both the boys and girls Division I titles.
While the girls were celebrating a team trip to the state finals, the Baler boys team just missed qualifying for the prestigious state meet. The Balers team total of 91 wound up finishing third behind Bellarmine’s 84 points and Carlmont’s impressive, 32 point effort.
“We did extremely well considering the lineup that we had that day,” said Baler coach Jess Morales, who didn’t elaborate on why two Baler runners weren’t in the lineup at CCS. “I really got to take my hat off to the seniors on the team. These guys all gave me two weeks of hard work to get ready for it, and we just missed state by seven points.”
Although the boys team won’t be at the state meet, which is held this year on Nov. 25 at Woodward Park in Fresno, Rigo Vasquez’ time of 16:07 at CCS was good enough for a fifth-place finish at CCS, which allowed him to qualify as an individual runner.
“This is his third trip to state as an individual,” Morales said. “His freshman and sophomore we made it as a team. This is his last year. Now it’s time for him to go down there and bust it out and run his race. It’s his last shot.”
After Vasquez, the next Baler to cross the finish line was senior Eddie Trujillo, who finished 11th with a time of 16:28. Sophomore runner Lance Villasenor followed Trujillo. Villasenor’s time of 16:53 was good for 18th place.
“Lance really stepped it up,” Morales said. “To finish 18th as a sophomore is really good. Eddie has always run well for me. He’s given me four good years.”
The next male runner to cross the finish line for the Balers was junior Andrew Yacovone. His time of 17:06 was good for 28th place in the 115-runner field.
Baler sophomore Frank Rivera finished 33rd and senior Cameron Hill was 37th.
Although he didn’t finish as high as his teammates, perhaps the most impressive performance on the Baler boys team came from Jacob Funk. Funk’s 40th place finish wound up being higher than any freshman runner in the entire section, which should bode well for the future of the Baler program.
Now that the CCS meet is behind them, the entire focus this week for the Baler girls team and Vasquez has been preparing for state. And just like they did at CCS, the girls team has high hopes for the state meet.
“We’re going to go down there the same way we went into CCS, with a chip on our shoulder,” Morales said. “We’re going to go in there with the intentions of performing our best and proving everyone wrong.”
Leading the way for the Baler girls at CCS was sophomore runner Courtney Allen, whose time of 19:12 was good enough for fifth place in the 104-runner field.
Allen was followed by freshman standout Annmari Rich, who finished 15th. Crossing the finish line back-to-back in 19th and 20th place were Baler runners Lauren Villasenor and Kristina Vasquez.
San Benito’s Alison Meyer took the 27th position and senior Dana Balsey was 29th. The final Baler to cross the finish line was junior Sandy Meza, who finished in 36th place.
“It was a great day for the whole team,” Morales said. “Six of our seven runners set their personal record times at CCS and the seventh runner tied her best. It was really all about the team and its performance.”
Water Polo
After advancing through the opening round of the Central Coast Section playoffs last week for the first time in school history both the San Benito High boys and girls water polo teams hit a buzz saw in the section quarterfinals last Saturday.
The No. 7 seeded Baler boys team lost 13-7 to the tournament’s No. 2 seed Menlo-Atherton High School while the No. 8 seeded girls squad succumbed to the tournament’s No. 1 seed St. Francis by a 16-10 margin.
Despite the losses, it was considered a successful season for both teams as each squad made it into the playoffs.
The league champion Baler boys team finished the season with a record of 16-7 overall and was a perfect 7-0 in league play. The Baler girls team, despite having a new coach and a number of inexperienced players, still finished 20-5 overall and finished second in league to Santa Catalina, posting a 7-2 record.
Both teams had the luxury of playing its first-round game at home. In the opening round the boys squad wasted no time disposing of No. 10 seed Lynbrook High by an impressive 17-4 margin while the girls team ousted No. 9 seed Presentation 19-4 on the following afternoon.
“It had to end at some point,” said San Benito boys varsity coach Tom Agan when asked to sum up the season. “It was an awesome season though. I want to give everyone credit. We literally had 15 guys out there, who put their hearts into it. We would have never gone as far as we did without every single one of them contributing.”
In the loss to Menlo-Atherton that ended the season the two biggest contributors for the Balers in terms of offense were James Shafer and Dave Smith. Each of them scored three goals.
“MA is a pretty solid team,” Agan said. “The guys actually did a really good job. MA was really physical and fast all-around.”
Although Agan did not hesitate to give the Bears full credit for the win, he had some concerns with the way the game was refereed.
“I would have liked to have seen the game called more technically,” he said. “There was a lot going on that I don’t think needs to be a part of water polo. There were a lot of fouls that weren’t called. That’s pretty much what I’m saying. This isn’t college or nationals. It’s still high school. I think we need to pay more attention to what it says in the official rulebook. I’m not making any excuses. We just don’t have the ability to be as physical as them.”
Heading into the playoffs Agan knew that this year’s Baler team, which had 12 experienced seniors on its 15-man roster, was the school’s best chance to advance deep into the playoffs and perhaps even win the tournament, which made being eliminated in the second round an even harder pill to swallow.
“Twelve of these guys will be graduating but there’s always some good guys coming up,” Agan said. “My brother John (JV coach) does a good job with that. We’ll just have to see what players we have and we’ll go from there.”
