San Benito boys cross country coach Jess Morales and his team have a big goal this year – getting to state as a group – while the girls squad is young but optimistic.
San Benito boys cross country coach Jess Morales and his team have a big goal this year – getting to state as a group.
They not only have the talent to get there, but they and other teams are also getting a major boost this year because three schools in the section, instead of the customary two, will advance to state in Fresno.
Last year, the Balers placed fourth in the Central Coast Section, while returning senior Steven Velarde was the lone San Benito runner at the state championships in 2012.
“They gave us three teams now – which is a big, big, big plus for us,” Morales said, adding that for many years it has been two teams and that the Balers have often placed third in CCS.
Morales is expressing optimism about the Balers’ chances because he is returning his star runner, Velarde, along with a host of talented juniors and sophomores. Velarde at last year’s state meet placed 64th in the boys Division I race with a time of 16:05. He said that was right around his top times for 2012, though he has routinely cut around 20 to 30 seconds from his time from year to year.
“I went in there trying to do my best and I think that’s what I did,” Velarde said late last week from practice at San Benito High School’s track.
To prepare for the 2013 season, Velarde and other Baler runners participated in the Tri County Running Club. This year as a senior, Velarde is taking a stronger leadership role in summer training and now in practice – the team usually heads out into nearby fields or on the track – as the Balers prepare for 2013.
“I just kind of want to do like the other ones before me,” Velarde said. “When I was an incoming freshman, I didn’t know what to do. My teammates, the older ones, kind of helped me out. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
Two of those younger teammates, sophomores Elijah Changco and Juan Gutierrez, are up-and-coming talents on the Baler cross country team and are expected to contribute significantly toward the potential state run.
Changco and Gutierrez both talked about their training regimes from the summer. Changco said they ran twice a day almost every day. They often did hills to build their stamina and prepare themselves for the terrain they’ll see on certain courses this season.
“It helps us to know when to pick it up and ease down a little,” Gutierrez said of the hill work.
Between the sophomores and senior in grade level is one of the team’s other top runners, junior Jose Ruiz.
“I think we have a pretty good team to be one of the top contenders to go to state,” Ruiz said, noting that Bellarmine Prep will be the biggest competition in the league. “There’s many talented runners like Steven, Elijah and Juan. We really have a chance to surprise many teams.”
Girls have young squad
The San Benito High School girls cross country team may have lost one of the school’s all-time best runners in Vanessa Estrada, but they have a lot of hope for 2013, especially with around 30 girls out for the team.
One of them is returning junior Amy Quinones, who made it to state individually in 2012. She and fellow returning junior Anjelica Collins are going to be team captains this season.
“Even though we have a younger squad,” said Quinones, who finished 73rd in Fresno with a time of 19:08, “we have to build them up to the level that’s expected.”
Quinones has a goal of reaching the low 18s this season, while Collins said she wants to get in the mid or low 19s.
Individually, Collins said her goal is to “stay up there with Amy and help other girls get at that level too so we have a good, strong squad.”
As the Balers reload on the girls side, the high school programs run by Jess and Josh Morales, who coaches the girls, are welcome to more runners joining the teams in the next couple of weeks.
“The more kids that we have, the better we’re going to be as a team,” Jess Morales said. “It starts with the freshmen. You just don’t know what you’ve got.”
