Baler boys defeat Alvarez, North Salinas and Palma, while Baler
girls do the same to Alvarez, North Salinas and Notre Dame in final
meet before TCAL Championships
SALINAS
The San Benito cross country team wrapped up the 2010 regular season Monday with an impressive all-around sweep of Everett Alvarez, North Salinas, Palma and Notre Dame at Salinas’ Toro Park.
The four-team dual meet win came one week after both the Baler boys and girls defeated rival Salinas at Toro Park, which will be the site of the Tri-County Athletic League Championships on Oct. 30.
A strong sign as San Benito prepares for the year-end league meet, Monday’s win provided both the boys and girls team with an undefeated record in TCAL action this year, whereas the Baler boys posted just 15 points on Monday — the lowest possible amount a team can record.
“We swept all categories,” San Benito coach Jess Morales said.
The Baler boys defeated Alvarez, North Salinas and Palma by a matching 15-45 margin. San Benito’s Said Hernandez (16:56), Ricardo Esqueda (16:56), Eddie Guzman (16:56), Jose Castillo (16:57) and Omar Vasquez (16:57) finished in the top five spots at the meet, while Sergio Alcala followed in 17:00 and Steven Velarde trailed with a 17:04.
“They all ran in a pack and that’s what we wanted to do,” Morales said. “We didn’t have anyone on us.”
The San Benito girls, meanwhile, didn’t earn the top five spots like the boys did, but they did manage to easily top Alvarez (16-43), North Salinas (18-41) and Notre Dame (22-35), nevertheless.
Vanessa Estrada and Maura Forbush took the top two spots on Monday, recording times of 19:36 and 19:58, respectively, while Dayna Casillas followed with a sixth-place overall finish in 20:52.
Teammate Cynthia Trujillo trailed with a seventh-place finish in 20:59, while Grace Tobias was 10th overall in 21:09.
Megan Pape, in 11th place overall, rounded out the team when she recorded a 21:19 at Toro Park.
The three comfortable victories on Monday came one week after San Benito posted similar results against Salinas — the defending TCAL champions on the boys side.
The Baler boys proved they will most definitely be a force at TCALs when they defeated Salinas 20-37, taking five of the top seven spots.
Jose Castillo paced San Benito to a first-place overall finish in 16:30. Although Salinas’ Max Bell followed with a 16:39, Balers Eddie Guzman (16:41), Omar Vasquez (16:43) and Sergio Alcala (16:56) finished in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Cowboy Bryan Tena broke up the Balers with a sixth-place finish in 17:06, but San Benito’s Said Hernandez managed to round out the team in a seventh-place time of 17:15 to close out the victory.
Meanwhile, like Monday against Alvarez, North Salinas and Notre Dame, San Benito’s Estrada (20:06) and Forbush (20:42) finished in first and second, respectively, during last week’s dual with Salinas, too. Forbush’s second-place time, in fact, was 38 seconds faster than third-place finisher Malena Grover (21:15) of Salinas.
Pape took fourth for San Benito in 21:25, while Casillas was sixth in 21:51 and Trujillo was eighth in 22:08 to round out the team.
In other news, both the boys and girls junior varsity team won Monday as well, and will each finish their respective 2010 regular season campaigns undefeated, while members of the San Benito boys and girls frosh/soph teams wrapped up the regular season with just one loss apiece.
The Balers will be off until the TCAL Championships, which will be held at Toro Park on Saturday, Oct. 30.
