High School Sports

Whenever opponents have faced the Anzar High baseball team for the first time this season, the looks of befuddlement begin. Yes, there is a girl on the Hawks squad, and she can play.

The San Benito High swimming team had three individual winners—Shannon Stephens, Zander Bonnet and Ryan Okubo—in last Saturday’s Monterey Bay League Championships at Hartnell College. Stephens won the 50 freestyle in 26.71 seconds, Bonnet won the 100 backstroke in a season-best time of 1:00.45 and Okubo won the 500 free in 5:26.40.

Matt Hill and Tyler Biersdorff both had their fair share of adversity earlier in the season. Hill went through stretches where he struggled offensively, and Biersdorff couldn’t even bat due to tendinitis in his left hand.

Brittnee Rossi and Chloe Cortez are the Nos. 1 and 2 hitters in the lineup for the San Benito High softball team, the table setters who get on base in front of potent hitters and Division I-signees Callee Heen and Suzy Brookshire. Rossi and Cortez display a calmness at the plate, belying the normal struggles players go through when they first take up a sport.

Elijah Changco knew things would be interesting the first time he met fellow teammate Juan Gutierrez in the summer before their freshman year at San Benito High. Gutierrez showed up for a workout on the cross-country team with a cast on his arm, a result of a haphazard accident trying to dunk a basketball.

Lili Jeske played a variety of sports growing up, but nothing ever sustained her interest. That all changed when Jeske took up swimming during her freshman year. The San Benito High junior found her calling in the pool that year, winning her first-ever race in the 100 backstroke in a dual meet midway through the season.

In last year’s Monterey Bay League Finals, Zander Bonnet finished in second place in the 100 backstroke by two-tenths of a second. That moment provided even more fuel for the already motivated Bonnet to get faster.

Marisa Villegas needed a mental boost as the track and field season hit the halfway point a couple of weeks ago. And that’s exactly what the San Benito High junior got when she competed in the prestigious Arcadia Invitational on April 8-9. Villegas earned a medal by placing first in her heat and sixth overall in the Open Division of the mile run in 5 minutes, 2.02 seconds.

With the exception of one game, an 11-9 win over Watsonville on March 15, the San Benito High baseball team has limited opponents to five runs or less in every contest. The pitching staff has no doubt been the strength of a team that was 8-4 overall and 6-2 in league play in advance of Thursday’s home game against Palma.

Every time Chris Gonzalez has taken the court this season, he’s done it with a heavy heart. Last summer, Gonzalez’s father, Armando, died in a motorcycle accident. He was 37.