Boys dominate North Salinas; girls come up big in final five
events to squeak out victory
The San Benito girls track team needed to pick up points quickly in the last five events to score at least 69 to beat visiting North Salinas on Thursday. In dual track meets, 68 points are needed to tie, and 69 to win.
Coach Jennifer Logue counted points as carefully as a mother hen would count her chicks. The girls kept bringing in big point amounts in the last five events to pull off a 73-63 victory.
The boys varsity team won 100-36, and both JV teams won also.
The first of the crucial last few events for the Lady Balers was the 330-yard hurdles. Jumping the ten hurdles is even tougher on the dirt track at Andy Hardin field.
A Salinas athlete was ahead going into the final hurdle, but Jennifer Anaya kept gaining ground, inch by inch. When the Salinas girl hit the last hurdle, Anaya surged and won the race for a crucial five points.
Coach Logue, who until that time did not believe that the meet could be won, was overjoyed. Anaya was pleased but exhausted.
The next event was the 220-yard dash. Kristen Para, who performed well all day, finished second, and Michelle Sanchez finished third to help the Balers gain four more points.
Chrystina Osborne was second in the discus, and Johni Kiesewetter was third, and Coach Logue wrote down four more points.
The girls still needed at least seven more points to win the meet.
The two-mile event, the longest race of the day, was the next event. Teralyn Hill ran 12:56 for her personal best for first, and Jamilla Saqqa was third for six more precious points.
As Jamilla and Saqqa desperately tried to get air into their lungs, coach Logue was gathering together her mile-relay runners for a few last seconds of coaching. Saqqa had placed second earlier in the mile, with Hill third.
The last event of every meet is the 4 by 440 relay race, which the Balers had to win to win the match
The team of Amanda Boyd, Chrystina Osborne, Jennifer Anaya and Michelle Sanchez won, beating a very game North Salinas team.
The boys 4 by 440-yard race was just as exciting.
Willie Sanchez, Jesse Rice, John DiSalvo and Tamar Elbanhawy won by just a few feet. Elbanhawy held off one of the fastest sprinters in the state, Ronnie Drummer, to bring home the victory.
The boys swept the two-mile (Rigo Vasquez, Albert Sandoval and Victor Hernandez) and won the first five places in the pole vault behind Todd Merrigan, Ryan Sesody, Matt Wynne, Chris Uribe and Mason Dungy.
The weight throwers swept the discus.
Chris Stephens took first with a throw a few inches under 140 feet, Jessie Grace came in second and Nick Kostielney placed third. Grace won the shot, and Stephens came in second.
The Baler boys swept the 100 high hurdles with the efforts of Siljef Tabancay, John DiSalvo and Raul Marta.
DiSalvo won the 330-yard intermediate hurdles in 41.78, and Tabancay came in second.
Jonathan Rivera and Hernandez came in first and third in the mile, and the same two athletes placed second and third in the 880-yard race.
Tabancay won the long jump, and Sanchez came in third. Jesse Rice won the 440-yard race in 51.77 with Tabancay third.
Jonathan Araiza placed second in the triple jump, with Parker third. Francisco Faria won the high jump, with Todd Merrigan third.
As has been the case in all five dual meets this year, the boys scored points in every event and swept a few of them.
The girls also swept an event – the 100-yard hurdles. Anaya, Kristen Para and Tatiana Schweki finished first through third.
Para won the high jump and placed second in the 100-meter dash. Amanda Hedrick placed third in the 100 meters. Mary Von Urff won the shot, with Johni Kiesewetter second.
Amanda Boyd won the 880-yard race in spite of a very sore leg.
Michelle Sanchez placed second in the 440-yard dash, with Kelsey Wrobley placing third. Michelle Flores won the triple jump, and Leslie Schipper finished third.
The boys are now 5-0 in TCAL league competition, and the girls are 4-1.
The Balers will compete in the league preliminaries May 12 at North Salinas starting at 2 p.m. The first nine places in every event advance to the Tri-County Athletic League finals May 15 at Live Oak’s new track.
Both teams will need to win the league meet to place first in the final league standings.
The girls have won the league title for the past six years, and the boys have won for the last two years. For both, the team to beat is Salinas High School.
