Vasquez pushes boys to a fifth-place finish, Boyd leads girls to
16th overall in Palo Alto
Palo Alto – The 2005 Stanford Invite was a good one for the San Benito High cross country team. The Haybalers finished well in both the boys’ and girls’ races as expected and there were a couple of pleasant surprises as some of the team’s younger talent stepped up on the big stage at one of the country’s premiere meets.
“We’re really running well as a team right now,” said SBHS head coach Jess Morales. “We’ve seen some of our freshmen really step it up. We only missed finishing in the top three by 40 or so points and our freshmen helped a lot.”
On the boys’ side, it was junior Rigo Vasquez who posted the best time of any ‘Baler runner. Vasquez’s time of 16.34 was good enough for 10th place overall and only one second behind Jesse Morrill, a senior out of Marina.
Also helping the Haybalers out to their fifth-place finish overall in the Division I race was Eddie Trujillo, who finished 21st with a time of 16:58 and Alfredo Lopez with a time of 17:13 for 31st place. But it was the freshman trio of Adrian Rodriguez, Erik Rodriguez and Lance Villasenor that proved to be the big story for Hollister on Saturday.
Adrian Rodriguez finished 52nd in his first ever Stanford Invite with a time of 14:35 while brother and fellow freshman Erik took 108th with a time of 18:24. Villasenor tied for 128th with a time of 18:34.
For the girls, Hollister’s Amanda Boyd had a rough race by her usually high standards, finishing in ninth place with a time of 19:36. Boyd’s finish was the best time recorded by a Hollister runner on the day but she finished two spots behind Live Oak’s Cobbie Jones, a runner whom she always matches up well with and one she will be seeing against shortly when The Acorns and ‘Balers meet on October 17 for a TCAL event in Morgan Hill.
“She was pretty aggressive,” said Morales of Boyd’s race on Saturday. “She ran that first mile pretty aggressively with the lead pack and then her legs got heavy.”
Sophomore Alison Meyer took 68th with a time of 21:40 but it was the performance of freshman runner Courtney Allen that was the biggest surprise of the day for Hollister.
It was only the second invite Allen had ever ran but she was able to post a time of 22:35 to take 101st.
“She really stepped it up,” said Morales of Allen’s performance on Saturday. “Actually, she really surprised me. This is only her second time running varsity and she’s coming along. I told her she could do it and she really handled the pressure. It was the biggest invite that she’s ever run in and she’s closing the gap between being a beginner and a runner who can compete on the varsity level.
The Haybalers also enjoyed a tremendous showing from their junior varsity boys’ squad, which finished in first place overall at the Stanford Invite. Cameron Hill paced the field and took first while teammate Kyle Bambrick took second.
