Sports

On Tuesday, the San Benito High track and field team qualified a sizable contingent of their athletes to the Monterey Bay League Championships. The top nine finishers in each event qualify for Friday’s Championships at Gilroy High. On the girls side, some of the key highlights include junior Marisa Villegas winning the 800-meter run and 1600 in 2:20.73 and 5:16.28, respectively.

Jason White remembers the euphoria he felt after the San Benito High lacrosse team beat Soquel near the end of the 2015 season. Even though it went down in the record books as the Haybalers’ second win, players and coaches felt like it was their first (San Benito won via forfeit earlier in the season).

Entering the season, Tyler Triano had plenty of high expectations to play well—at catcher, not on the mound. But the San Benito High junior right-hander has been downright filthy this season. Through last week’s play, Triano was 4-1 with a microscopic 0.80 ERA.

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.

Christian Monroy never ran track while he prepped at Anzar High, graduating from the San Juan Bautista school in 2014. But the Hartnell College sophomore showed just how far he’s come when he signed his letter of intent last week to run cross country and track at Eastern New Mexico University.

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.