Hollister boys take team title, ‘Baler girls finish an
unexpected second in Morgan Hill
San Benito High continued its all–around dominance on the track this past weekend at the CCS Championships.
The boys won the team title with 132 points, edging out second-place Salinas (123) for the ‘Balers third league title in four years. The ‘Baler girls, who were just three points behind Salinas going into the final event, finished second behind the Cowboys.
“We’ve had a whole lot of injuries and special circumstances, so this was especially sweet,” said San Benito boys head coach Iran White about the team victory. “We’ve overcome a lot.”
First, there were injuries to 400m runner Chad Tungate (hamstring) and high jumper and 300m hurdler Ian Whitely (ankle) earlier in the season. Then on Saturday, the ‘Balers didn’t have distance runner Victor Hernandez and pole vaulter Taylor Guerra because the two had to take AP tests. But there were others ready to perform.
“A lot of guys were stepping up and filling in spots,” White said.
The top three finishers in each event at the finals earned automatic berths into this Saturday’s CCS Semifinals at San Jose City College.
Jesse Rice ran away with two league titles Saturday, in the 200m (22.62) and in the 400m (50.68). He was also a part of the 4×400 San Benito relay team that took third (3:37.61). Rigo Velasquez was the league champion in the 3200m run.
In pole vault, Matt Wynne vaulted 14-00.00 to win the title, while Todd Merrigan (13-06.00) and Josh Schroder (J13-06.00) finished third and fourth respectively.
On the girls side, Amanda Boyd ran a dominant 3200m race for first place with a time of 11:19.99, over 30 seconds faster than the second place finisher, North Salinas’ Brenna Bauer (11:52.19). Boyd also took second in the 800m (2:22.04) and 1600m (5:14.69) runs.
Senior jumper Danielle Andrewson also had a big day. She earned the league title in the triple jump (35-09.75), and had second place finishes in the high jump (5-00.00) and long jump (16-02.00). Ashley Patton also took third in high jump with a mark of 4-08.00.
The ‘Baler girls swept the first two spots in the throwing events. Seniors Crystina Osborne (119-11) and Johni Kiesewetter (111-07) finished first and second in discus and junior Jackie Perrien and (35-11.50) and freshman Lila Yodi (32-04.00) took the first two spots in shot put.
“Even more than the boys, the girls stepped up,” White said. “By numbers, they weren’t supposed to be anywhere near as close as they were to Salinas.”
Gilroy thrower Bobby Best didn’t have to be perfect to have success at the TCAL Finals.
The junior defended his TCAL title in discus (155-09 feet) and took second in shot put (48-03.00 feet) at the league meet at Live Oak Saturday.
“Today was weird,” Best said. “Every throw, it felt like something was wrong. Every throw, there was something I didn’t like.”
Though he didn’t defend both titles, Best will have a chance to improve for CCS competition. The top three finishers in each event Saturday automatically qualified for this weekend’s CCS Semifinals.
“This week in practice, I’m going to practice consistency and not think too much about technique,” Best said. “I’m just going to work on how consistent I can be.”
