For Elijah Changco and Angel Garcia, the realization of earning a state berth was overwhelming. Changco, a San Benito High senior, and Garcia, a Anzar High junior, produced strong performances in the Central Coast Section Cross-Country Championships on Nov. 14 at the rugged 2.95-mile Crystal Springs Course in Belmont.
“Even though I didn’t get a PR (personal record), it feels great knowing I’m going to state,” said Changco, whose time of 15 minutes, 48 seconds was good for a seventh-place finish in the boys Division I race. “I feel blessed and amazed, but at the same time it’s a little bittersweet since my teammates won’t be going with me this year.”
This was Garcia’s first time competing in the section championships, but he doesn’t plan on making it his last. His talent and hard work on full display, Garcia took seventh in the Division V boys race in 16:45.
“It’s a lot of emotion for me because I’ve been sick and injured the previous two weeks,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to make it to state, but I fought hard for this.”
Did he ever. This was the first time Garcia had run at Crystal Springs, arguably the premier cross-country course in California. Battling shin splints for the past couple of weeks, Garcia wasn’t actually sure if he would start the race.
“It depended on how I was feeling in pre-race warm-ups,” he said. “If the injury was too much for me, I wasn’t going to run. I’m glad I did. It was a hard run, and most of the time I couldn’t breathe. But I pushed through it and am thankful I did.”
It was a career-defining performance for Garcia, who managed to finish ahead of Ryan Ixtlahuac, the outstanding runner from The York School. Ixtlahuac had beaten Garcia in all of the Mission Trail League meets throughout the season. But when it mattered most, Garcia came up with one of the best performances in his burgeoning running career.
“My mindset was simple: to go as fast as I could,” Garcia said. “I passed like 10 people total and that gave me confidence. I just knew I had to beat Ryan. He was my competition all year and was one of my biggest motivations to run fast.”
As Garcia neared the 2.5-mile mark, Anzar coach Faby Felix told him his time.
“It was 13-something, so I knew it was going to be a PR,” he said. “I had no idea on state; I just knew I had to push it hard to the finish.”
So did Changco, who crossed the finish line before he collapsed to the ground. Once Changco got to the runners’ area to take off the timing chips on his shoes, he lay in the fetal position, exhausted from a hard run.
“It was a typical Elijah finish,” he said with a grin. “I’m pretty satisfied, but honestly, I wish I could’ve done a little better. I was aiming for a 15:30, but overall I’m happy with the way I ran. This was one of my better hill races, and I executed my plan.”
Knowing he had to dial things down a bit at the start, Changco ran a somewhat conservative pace early before ramping things up at the 2-mile mark. The senior can’t wait to run in the CIF State Meet on Nov. 28 at Woodward Park.
“Last year I went into state blind and didn’t have a good race,” Changco said. “This year I’ll know how to run a better race.”
The San Benito boys took 10th place, with Nolan Sanchez (34th), Juan Gutierrez (57th), Nico Tapia (96th), Angel Cortes (99th), Arturo Chavez (107th) and Luis Mendoza (123rd) rounding out the team’s finishers. The San Benito girls finished fourth, two spots out from a state berth. The girls were expected to contend for a state spot, but champion Homestead (82 points), Monta Vista (95) and Menlo-Atherton (95) proved too be a notch above the Haybalers, who totaled 115 points.
Elli Kliewer, a sophomore who is in her first year running on the team, was the team’s top finisher in 17th in 19:22. Samantha Cortes was 19th in 19:40, Mariah Changco was 24th in 19:55, Katherine Monteon was 26th in 20:03, Hailey Cross was 29th in 20:12, Brianna Martin was 37th in 20:19 and Kira Emma was 57th in 20:58. Although the team didn’t make it to state, it has just one senior on the squad. In addition, Balers co-coach Ryan Shorey expects some girls who didn’t run this year to potentially come out next season.
Kliewer has come on strong later in the season, and no doubt has plenty of promising days ahead. Kliewer chose to play volleyball last year, and her rookie season in cross country has been nothing short of spectacular.
“I’m tired, but I felt pretty good overall,” she said. “It was a tough race for the team, but we ran our race and pushed ourselves as best we could. It’s a great experience running here, and hopefully we can come back and make it to state next year.”
