It seemed that it would be an almost foregone conclusion for San Benito senior Vanessa Estrada that after three years of advancing to the Division I Central Coast Section championship she would finally grab the section title.
In Toro Park on Saturday, Estrada did just that and more. Estrada blew away the field from the outset, taking first and setting a new personal record with a time of 17:54. From the opening gunshot, there was no question that it was Estrada’s championship to win.
Estrada was only one of four local athletes to earn a spot in the California Interscholastic Federation State Championship on Nov. 24 in Fresno. Her teammate Amy Quinones (19:19) took seventh, Steven Velarde (15:46) placed fifth in the boys’ race and Anzar’s Diego Leon (16:20) won the Division V race to advance to the state championship.
For Estrada it was the perfect culmination of her CCS career at San Benito. After falling sick at the finish line a year ago, it was redemption for Estrada in Salinas.
“It means a lot to me,” she said. “Last year, I was sick and … I passed out and crawled toward the line. It wasn’t a good race for me. This year, I was healthy, I wasn’t sick. I was ready and I felt confident in myself. I was focused and on a mission. I kind of relaxed and just thought it was another race. I have to do my part and everything will fall to place.”
Estrada didn’t need much luck – or even a plan – to pull away. She shot out from the starting line and quickly build a sizable lead after the first couple of turns. By the time Estrada crossed the finish line, she was ahead by nearly a minute.
“I really didn’t have a plan,” Estrada said. “I’m just going to do my own thing. If I do my own thing things are gong to fall into place. Everyone helped me from cheering me on.”
After coming up just short from a section title the past two years, Saturday’s championship was worth the wait.
“It was really great this year,” she said. “This is what I wanted. This was my goal. I trained hard for it.”
Sophomore Quinones advanced to the state championship for the first time despite becoming sick at the finish line. Quinones started in the second pack behind Estrada but slowly faded as the race continued. She earned the final individual berth, beating out Menlo-Atherton’s Taylor Fortnam by five seconds.
As a team, the Balers didn’t run like they wanted to, head coach Josh Morales said. San Benito, which entered the race among the favorites, finished in fifth place as league opponent Salinas took the top prize.
“We didn’t’ do what we wanted to do,” Josh Morales said. “If we ran what we had to do we would have down a lot better.”
Senior Maura Forbush, who was battling an injury, placed 37th with a time of 20:33. Teammates Bernadette Forbush (20:44) and Anjelica Collins (20:52) placed 44th and 47th to round out the top Baler runners.
On the boys side, the Balers surprised the field with a fifth place finish, beating out league champion Salinas. Velarde led the way, earning a berth in the state championship with a career-best run. With teammate Ricardo Esqueda – who missed a CCS time by placing 25th – Velarde jumped to the front of the pack from the beginning. He faded halfway through but made a late charge to grab the third individual qualifier.
His state berth fulfilled a year-long dream that started once the season ended a year ago, Velarde said.
“At first I knew I needed a good start and that’s exactly what I did,” he said. “The second thing, I was thinking I just need to hang on. I really wanted to go to state. The only way I could go is if stay with these guys. It feels pretty great. I put in a lot of hard work and I’m happy with the results.”
The strong time didn’t surprise Baler head coach Jess Morales.
“He just shows up in the races and big races,” Jess Morales said. “He is there. Every time he ran last year he said he wanted to do this. Big races he comes out and does it. He trains hard and he works hard to get this.”
The rest of the team struggled to say inside the top 50 but the young runners made improvements over previous times, head coach Jess Morales said.
Freshman Elijah Changco (16:56) took 35th place, sophomore Matthew Reikowski (17:33) placed 64th and freshman Juan Gutierrez (17:37) took 68th for the Balers.
In the DV race, Anzar’s Leon used a late push to run past York’s Kobi Lee to win the race by only two seconds. It’s the third year in the past four that Leon will go to the state race. Saturday, though, was Leon’s first section championship.
“It makes me feel proud,” Leon said. “I made this goal probably at the end of the summer and I made every day count and every run count. And I held on to that feeling for so long its just amazing to finally win today.”
It wasn’t easy for Leon, who entered the race after being sick for the past two days. In the end, though, being sick didn’t effect him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just fought through it. I knew people that I haven’t seen since summer where going to cheer me on today so I ran hard.”
He continued: “I thought it wasn’t going to happen come race day. But then I thought at his point in the season it wasn’t about training or about health but about your mind. If you think you can win after all those runs and all those miles all you need is the spirit.”
Leon led the Hawks to a fourth place finish in the DV race but Anzar placed three runners in the top 20. Teammates Christian Monroy (17:46) and Diego Avila (17:49) took 17th and 18th for the Hawks.
In the girls race, Anzar took sixth place out of seven teams. Two runners, Ali Bautista (23:00, 24th place) and Yvette Felix (23:08, 25th place) ran inside the top 30.
