n By NATHAN MIXTER
Sports Editor
Stanford – The San Benito boys cross country team finished fourth among the Division 1 unseeded teams in the Stanford Invitational on Saturday.
“It was the first time for any of them running at Stanford,” said coach Jess Morales. “They didn’t know what to expect, but they did well.”
It was the best that San Benito had ever finished in the race, Morales said.
San Benito finished behind Serra, Trabuco Hills and Buchanan amoung unseeded Division 1 teams with a time of 86.56 in the field of 37 teams from California, Oregon and Washington.
Sophomore Alfredo Lopez finished 24th (17:05), sophomore Rigo Vasquez finished 27th (17:08), Josh Vasquez finished 36th (17:15), Eddie Trujillo placed 62nd (17:38), Kyle Bambrick placed 76th (18:03), Albert Sandoval placed 94th (18:03) and Randall Lopez finished 178th (19:09).
San Benito also finished in fourth place among Central Coast Section schools.
North Monterey (Division 2) came in first with a time of 83:36, Carmel (Division 4) came in second with a 84:51 and Serra (Division 1) came in third with a 84:56.
On Monday, San Benito defeated North Salinas in a Tri-County Athletic League meet at Toro Park by a perfect 15-49, but the girls lost 27-28 after a close race.
For the boys team, the top six finishers in order were Josh Vasquez (16:43), Rigo Vasquez (16:56), Lopez (17:15), Bambrick (17:25) and Victor Hernandez (17:27).
Hernandez beat out a North Salinas runner for sixth place.
Trujillo finished seventh (17:35) and Sandoval placed eighth (17:53).
For the girls, Amanda Boyd came in first in her first race at Toro Park with a time of 20:22.
Jamila Saqqa came in fourth with a time of 22:16.
Alison Meyer was ruled to have come in sixth at 22:30 just a hair behind the North Salinas runner in a photo finish.
Evie Betencourt came in 8th (23:04), Brenda Garibay came in 9th (23:22), Megan Garrett came in 11th (24:01) and Lilianna VillaGomez came in 13th (24:24), improving her previous time from 28:23.
“I am really proud of the girls,” Morales said. “It was close. It could have been the other way around. But it is a good learning experience.”
