Undefeated San Benito cross country teams eye repeat TCAL titles
after convincing wins over Alisal at Park Hill
Hollister – What Lauren Villasenor did to her Alisal challenger on Monday is exactly what the San Benito girls’ cross country team hopes to do when it faces Salinas in the upcoming Tri-County Athletic League Championships.
Trailing Trojan runner Adilene Sanchez by roughly 10 seconds with two-thirds of the race complete, Villasenor steadily made up ground through the last loop at Park Hill to be right on her tail as they approached the last hill. And once the runners came to the final grade, it wasn’t even close. Blowing by Sanchez with ease, Villansenor burst through the finish line two seconds in front of the Trojan.
“I just like to keep ’em in sight so when they get tired on the hills, that’s when I push it,” said Villansenor, whose time of 20:57 was good for second behind teammate Courtney Allen.
After tying Salinas in regulation in a dual meet in September, prevailing 27-28 thanks to having the better sixth-place finisher, the Lady ‘Balers know they will need every edge they can get to top the Cowboys and defend their league title on Oct. 28. And the San Benito girls believe that their performance on the steep terrain at Toro Park is what can push them over the top.
“We’ve been working on hills,” Villasenor said, “because that’s what it’s going to come down to.”
That and some standout individual efforts. And there were plenty of the latter throughout the ranks as the San Benito runners posted a near clean sweep of Alisal in their final regular season meet.
Both the ‘Baler varsity boys’ and girls’ teams ran their records to 6-0 in TCAL meets, with the girls dusting the Trojans 21-40 and the boys prevailing 21-37. That all five placing runners for both San Benito teams set PRs speaks to the program’s readiness to make a mark at the league and Central Coast Section meets.
Senior Rigo Vasquez broke the previous course record, but he still finished a distant second as Alisal star Diego Estrada had his way with the 3.1-mile course in 16:18. “That’s flying,” San Benito boys’ coach Jess Morales said after Estrada laid waste to the previous record of 16:46. “That’s a tough course.”
Afterwards, Vasquez spoke of the runners’ friendship and the positive way Estrada can impact his showing in the postseason.
“He’s going to get me to place top-25 in State this year,” Vasquez said of the runner favored to win the CCS meet. “It makes me push myself so when I go up against hard competition, I’ll pretend it’s him and it’ll give me confidence.”
Four ‘Baler sophomores rounded out the team’s solid effort, with Adrian Rodriguez (3rd), Lance Villasenor (4th) and Erik Rodriguez (7th) breaking their previous best times by at least 35 seconds, and Frankie Rivera (5th) running a strong 18:05 in his first race at Park Hill.
The overwhelming favorites to win their fourth straight TCAL crown, the San Benito boys have a top-two finish at CCS and the resulting bid for the CIF State Championships in their sights. “We have our work cut out to see if we can go to State as a team,” Morales said. “Carlmont looks real tough. And Bellarmine.”
The Lady ‘Balers, meanwhile, are looking at the immediate future first.
“We’re probably just focused on TCALs first and from there thinking about what we’re going to do at CCS,” said Allen, who comfortably won the girls’ race in 20:25. “I want to beat Salinas real bad. But it’s going to be hard.”
With more efforts like they had on Monday, the Lady ‘Balers should be in good shape to give the Cowboys all they can handle, and then set out to at least equal their third-place CCS finish of 2005.
Freshman AnnMari Rich (5th), senior Dana Balsley (6th) and junior Sandy Meza (7th) joined Allen and Lauren Villasenor in breaking their old PRs by more than a minute on the cool afternoon that facilitated plenty of time drops.
And for the Lady ‘Balers, it may well come down to the hills, which is why girls’ coach Josh Morales was so pleased with Villansenor’s perseverance. “Lauren had a lot of heart, a lot of guts today,” said Morales, whose team tackled the long hill at Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos over the weekend in preparation for Toro Park. “We need efforts like that.”
The San Benito JV girls improved to 6-0 with their 18-38 win over Alisal, but the undermanned JV boys suffered their first league loss, 21-35. The ‘Balers also won both frosh/soph races with perfect scores.
