It’s always been a dream for the longtime boys cross-country
coach Jess Morales to hold a San Benito High cross-country
invitational – attracting teams from all over the state to run at
his program’s home track.
It’s always been a dream for the longtime boys cross-country coach Jess Morales to hold a San Benito High cross-country invitational – attracting teams from all over the state to run at his program’s home track.
It was a dream that he had for a long time – and Saturday it will be finally realized.
Morales’ Balers will host the first Earthquake Invitational at the remodeled Baler River Course – which made its debut in 2009 – on Saturday. He hopes it’s something that will continue for the foreseeable future.
“We want to have this every year,” he said.
For now, the invitational represents a big step for the program that continues to get better each year. Last year, both the girls and boys teams won the Tri-County Athletic League Championship, and so far this year both teams have dominated in early races – including a first-place finish for the boys team at the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 24.
Hopefully, the invitational will serve as motivation to continue that extensive growth. For the seniors, the moment has been building for four years.
“I’m really glad that I’m a senior attempting the first one,” noted Said Hernandez. “I’m excited to see what is going to happen and for us to win it.”
Ten teams from around the state will travel to Hollister on Saturday to take part in the race. The schools include Christopher High and two Central Valley powers Madera South and MacFarland.
“It’s great to have schools like Madera South here,” Morales said.
Originally, Morales expected 12 teams to come to the invitational but because of scheduling conflicts, those teams were forced to drop out. Regardless, Morales is happy to see 10 teams making the trip, but he hopes the meet will continue to grow each year.
“It would be great to have 20 to 30 teams here,” Morales said, comparing the invitational to others from around the region.
The ultimate goal is to make the cross-country program more popular among the Hollister community and the Baler supporters. If more people pay attention to the program, more athletes will choose to run and, in return, the program will become even stronger.
“We want to generate the community coming together and coming out to watching us run,” Morales said. “They have the chance to come to our home meet and watch us.”
Hernandez expects the race to bring more popularity to the sport – especially with more spectators at Saturday’s race.
“Cross-country will be more known in Hollister and people will know what’s going on and maybe we’ll have a bigger team next year,” Hernandez said.
But first, seniors Hernandez and Vasquez expect the Balers to come away with a win Saturday.
“Our expectations are to win at our course,” Vasquez said. “The benefit is to have it here at our course. It’s great to run at our course.”
The benefit of running on the home course, is the team’s knowledge, Morales said. The runners won’t have to go into the invitational learning as they go.
“We always run in other teams’ courses and we have to learn their course,” Morales said. “Here at our course, we do have a little bit of an advantage.”
And they’ll need it with the quality of teams coming in. The girls will have to battle Aptos runner Nikki Hiltz, who holds the second fastest time at Toro Park in Salinas. Leland will also bring runner Alyssa Johnson, who placed seconds behind San Benito’s Vanessa Estrada at the Stanford Invitational.
On the boys side, Morales hopes Vasquez is finally healthy enough to pace the race for the Balers. The senior was expected to be the Balers fastest runner this fall, but he as struggled with his health so far.
Other than Vasquez, San Benito is expected to do well with Hernandez and sophomores RJ Collins and Steven Velarde leading the way.
The race will kick off at 8 a.m. at San Benito High, as junior high students will run through the 3.1 mile course. The high school races begin at 9 a.m. with the freshmen and sophomore boys. The final race of the day will take place at 11:30 p.m. with the varsity girls running through the course.
