San Benito High juniors Elijah Changco and Juan Gutierrez were standout runners in elementary school—Changco at Spring Grove and Gutierrez at Sunnyslope—while Jose Ruiz didn’t try out for the San Benito High cross-country team until his sophomore year.
It was evident from an early age that as long as Changco and Gutierrez stayed motivated, they were going to be solid runners if not stars at the high school level. Ruiz was an entirely different case, as he dabbled in other sports before realizing running was his calling.
Now, as Ruiz enters the twilight of his prep career—he’s the lone senior of the Balers’ Big Three—the urgency to lead the team to the CIF State Championships has become paramount.
The Haybalers have come close to advancing to state in the ultra-tough Division I field in the last several years, placing one spot short in two of the last three seasons.
“We want to reach that goal that we’ve had ever since we were freshmen and say we finally made it,” Gutierrez said.
“It’s been difficult getting there because Division I is the best and the most competitive level,” Ruiz said. “That’s why it would be a privilege to break through and make it.”
“I think this is one of our better chances to make state,” Changco said.
That’s because San Benito’s Big Three has a couple of strong runners behind them, including junior Jacob Morioka, sophomore Nolan Sanchez and seniors Javier Azcona and Rene Nunez.
As one of the elite programs in the Central Coast Section, Changco, Gutierrez and Ruiz take pride in keeping the San Benito program near the top of the class. The trio has bonded through running, understanding that every second of pain and suffering they face together on a hard run works for a future glory.
“One time while I was running and twisted my ankle, someone from the team said they wish they had dedication like me,” Changco said. “The person said all the varsity guys have dedication to the sport, and he wanted to be like us. That meant a lot because it means you’re doing something right and being a good role model to everyone.”
Being a role model in a running sport means having some battle wounds at some point during the year, and Ruiz already had a nasty quarter-size blister at the bottom of his foot.
The Balers opened up the season at the Earlybird Invitational at Toro Park, with Changco and Gutierrez finishing with times in 16:39 and 16:43, respectively, and Ruiz finishing in 17:05.
Changco and Ruiz are running at virtually the same pace, and during a course of a race they push each other to the limit.
“If Juan passes me up, he’ll say ‘Alright Elijah, let’s go,’” Changco said. “Then I know I’ve got to stick with him. We’ll use hand signals or anything to keep each other going.”
Said Gutierrez: “If we both do well, then the entire team does better.”
Competition fuels the three to constantly improve.
“We’ve developed a close bond, but we want to beat each other, too,” Ruiz said. “We fight to be the best, but at the end of the day, we’re all best friends.”
Changco and Gutierrez are 115 and 130 pounds, respectively, while Ruiz is the tallest and heaviest of the bunch at 150.
“I’m the chunky one of the group because my mom makes amazing food and I eat a lot of portions,” Ruiz said with a laugh. “I can eat anything.”
As a second and third-grader at Spring Grove, Changco was the top finisher in his grade level in the school’s annual one-mile Turkey Trot. From the fourth through eighth grade, Changco was the top finisher in his grade level for the school’s yearly 2.8-mile run.
Gutierrez displayed a resiliency when he was a third-grader at Sunnyslope, as he was the first student to run 100 miles during the school’s lunch hour period for the school’s calendar year.
“You get a trophy, so in the third grade I wanted to go after it and I got it,” Gutierrez said. “I actually did it (run 100 miles) a month before the school year ended.”
Ruiz, on the other hand, tried out for the football team in his freshman year—“I wanted to be the hotshot football player, but that didn’t work out,” he said—only to realize he excelled in running.
“I played a lot of sports growing up, but I would always get bored of them,” Ruiz said. “I never got bored of running.”
Changco admitted he took his running up another notch after the 2013 cross-country season. His times were similar to his 2013 freshman campaign, and something needed to change.
“Freshman year I messed and lollygagged around a lot,” Changco said. “I got serious and started putting in more work; everyone was improving and I had to keep up.”
Changco took a renewed focus into last spring’s track and field season, where he finished in 12th-place in the 1,600-metet run of the CCS Championships. He idolized former Balers standout Steven Velarde, who is now running at Chico State. One of the school’s all-time great distance runners, Velarde has some of the fastest times in school history in cross country and the 1,600 and 3,200.
“I was always trying to keep up with Steven because he was my idol,” Changco said. “My goal was to always beat him once, but it never happened. I think I beat him a few times in the two-mile run (in practice), but never in cross country. My goal is to get close to his PR (personal record). Trying to keep up with him made me a lot faster.”
For the third straight year, Changco, Gutierrez and Ruiz are running together with a singular focus to get faster. Each of them knows they’ll have to suffer multiple times during an intense speed workout or race, but even when they feel like they’re about to die at the end, they know they’ve gained something.“
“When you’re tired and hurting, you just know you have to keep on going,” Gutierrez said. “You’re not just running for yourself, but for your teammates as well.”
