Local Runners from the TCAL Expected to Place Well at today’s
CCS meet
Boys’ Race
It’s no question that San Benito is the local heavyweight in the Division I race. But Gilroy, which qualified as a team for the first time in years, will challenge the field as well.
The ‘Balers, anchored by Rigo Vasquez, Eddie Trujillo and Alfredo Lopez, have a good shot at the team title but will have to battle Bellarmine, Serra and Carlmont for it. Individually, Vasquez is one of the favorites for the Division I title. He ran a time of 16:05 – better than all other Division I runners in the seeded race – at the Crystal Springs Invite on Oct. 5 for seventh place.
Gilroy, led by senior Arnulfo Velasquez, is making its first CCS team appearance in years. Though the TCAL teams are more used to Salinas’ Toro Park, Gilroy runners had good times at Crystal Springs.
“They like the course and had faster times there,” said Gilroy head coach Cathy Silva after the Oct. 29 TCAL Finals.
Velasquez’s best time this year at Crystal Springs is 16:12, which won him the unseeded boys race.
Sobrato’s Lance Wolfsmith could surprise at in the Division IIII race. The freshman qualified as an individual by taking second at the TCAL Championships behind San Benito’s Trujillo. He also ran the best time by a freshman in the boys’ unseeded race of the Crystal Springs Invite.
Girls’ Race
Live Oak’s Cobbie Jones and San Benito’s Amanda Boyd lead the way for their teams, which both qualified for the CCS meet. Boyd (18:48) and Jones (18:51) finished first and second at the TCAL Championships.
Unfortunately, Live Oak’s switch from Division I to the Division II means no head-to-head matchup between the Jones and Boyd this year. As juniors last year, Jones edged Boyd by five seconds for the Division I girls’ title at Toro Park in Salinas.
In the Division I race this year, Boyd will have other competition to worry about, namely Carlmont’s Haley Pascale and Monta Vista’s Angela Hsu and Jean Feng.
Jones, who signed a letter of intent Friday to run track and field for UCLA next year, will be racing against an arguably more competitive Division II field. The field features packed teams from Los Gatos, Aptos, Archbishop Mitty and Palo Alto. However, Jones does hold the best time this year at Crystal Springs of any Division II runner with an 18:26. But Division II runners Jill Goodwin of Los Gatos (18:30), Renisha Robinson of Mitty (18:30), Stephanie Barnett of Leland (18:31) and Renata Cummins of Palo Alto (18:36).
The other top runners are Live Oak senior Lisa Herrera, who took third to Boyd (1st) and Jones (2nd) at the TCAL Championships, and San Benito’s Courtney Allen and Allison Meyer.
Other competitors include Gilroy freshman Kathleen Miller, who qualified for the Division I race, and Sobrato sophomore Remy Birchmier, who qualified for the Division IIII race.
