When an athlete wins two individual events at a track and field meet, it’s considered a standout performance.
A third victory engenders many plaudits, and deservedly so. But four? Now you’re talking rarefied territory. That’s exactly where Marisa Villegas finds herself in after winning a record four—count ‘em, four—individual events in the Monterey Bay League Championships at Gilroy High on May 8.
In a performance that will go down as one of the greatest accomplishments in San Benito High sports history, the super sophomore had a night to remember, winning—in order—the 1600-meter run, 400, 800 and 3,200.
“My legs are shaking,” Villegas said moments after finishing the 3,200. “I felt really strong (in the 3,200), and I’m just happy and feeling good because I’m done. My legs are fried, and I’m definitely going to rest (on Saturday).”
Villegas deserved the rest. San Benito has a long line of standout runners—both in cross country and track—who have gone on to run at the Division I level. But no one from San Benito or any other school in the MBL was able to accomplish what Villegas did in winning four races in a championship league meet.
Her showing went a long way in the San Benito girls winning the team title, with 132 points. The boys finished second to Palma in the team standings. Villegas’ performance headlined another strong showing from San Benito track and field athletes.
Other winners included junior Shraee Harrison winning the 200, 400 and being the anchor leg of the Balers’ victorious 4×400-relay team, and sophomore Isaac Regalado winning the 110 hurdles.
Juan Gutierrez (1,600 and 3,200), Amy Quinones (800 and 1,600), Kenton Kpelgo (triple jump), Matthew Reikowski (pole vault) and freshman Annie Breger (triple jump) all had second-place finishes.
Nine competitors from each event—the top three placers from the Gabilan Division, the top two from the Pacific and the next best four placers regardless of division—advance to Friday’s MBL Master’s Meet.
From there, the top five qualifiers from each event advance to the Central Coast Section Trials on May 23. Villegas will have some key decisions to make in terms of choosing which events to run this year in the CCS Championships.
A year ago, Villegas primarily ran the 1,600, and finished fifth in the finals with a strong time of 4 minutes, 58.96 seconds. In most years, that time would’ve put her in the top three and qualified her for state.
However, for the last several years the 1,600 has been by far the toughest field on the girls’ side in qualifying for state, and this year is no different. To wit: Although the 1,600 was initially thought to be Villegas’ best event, there are five runners this season who have already run faster than Villegas’ PR from a year ago.
Villegas currently has the sixth best times in the section in both the 400 (57.60) and 800 (2:17.17), the 13th best time in the 1,600 (5:03.57) and the 27th best time in the 3,200 (11:32.09).
Villegas considers the 400 her hardest race because she only started running the event this season. However, Villegas’ talent and work ethic has her in prime position to be a major player in the event.
At the MBL Finals, Villegas posted times of 57.60 in the 400, 2:21.60 in the 800, 5:13.45 in the 1,600 and 11:32.71 in the 3,200. Villegas obliterated her previous PR in the 400, and there’s no telling how much faster she can go in the event.
Starting on one of the outer lanes, Villegas quickly made up the stagger by the 200-meter mark, and once she took the lead, she wasn’t going to be caught.
“The 400 is probably my hardest race, but it’s a good race because it helps me in all my events,” she said.
Villegas ran the 3,200 for just the second time this season, once again showing a tremendous will to win.
“It’s a great feeling just to be able to run in races you love to run,” she said. “To be able to win four races, I just knew I had to give it my all.”
As expected, Harrison won the 200 and 400 in times of 22.34 and 49.71 seconds, respectively. Both times were well short of his PRs; however, Harrison said he’s confident his best times are yet to come.
“I was just doing what I needed to do to win,” he said. “The season has been going good, and I haven’t come close to peaking yet. Since I PR’d at Stanford (the Stanford Invitational on April 4), I really haven’t had competition, so I’m just doing what it takes to win. Today was more like a practice day.”
Harrison saved his best for the last event of the night, the boys 4×400 relay. As the anchor leg for the Balers, Harrison had to overtake three runners, one of whom had a sizable lead of around 50 to 60 meters.
However, in one of the more impressive and spectacular anchor leg relay runs you’ll ever see, Harrison overtook each runner, one by one, until he took the lead for good with around 125 meters to go.
Regalado, a sophomore, was also impressive in a breakthrough performance in the 110 hurdles. He smashed his previous PR with a time of 15.67, the 10th best mark in the CCS this season.
Not bad for someone who didn’t run the event last year.
“Something about my form prevented me from running it,” he said.
Regalado obviously has his technique down now. Running perhaps the best race of his career, Regalado was just about flawless, starting and finishing strong. Regalado and Palma’s Marques Cannon were side by side until Cannon clipped the final hurdle.
“I was nervous because normally (Cannon) is really good,” Regalado said. “This is my biggest accomplishment so far, and I’m hoping to make it to the CCS Finals.”
Regalado gave credit to Balers hurdles coach Ryan Bartylla, who helped him with his form. A starting cornerback on the football team, Regalado knows he has plenty of more PRs in his career if he can master the technical aspects of hurdling.
Meanwhile, Reikowski has sharpened his technique on the pole vault and went 13 feet even to equal the mark of winner Norman Napolitano, the North Salinas senior who won by virtue of hitting the mark on fewer attempts.
“A win would’ve been nice, but I’m going to CCS confident I can put things together,” Reikowski said. “When you’re on the runway, you just hope you do everything right. But it happens so fast, and it’s all muscle memory at that point. You just hope you’re on point that day.”
Reikowski has only been pole vaulting since his sophomore year, taking it up after getting tired of being a distance runner. Reikowski has a PR of 13-6 this season, with only seven other vaulters in the section having gone higher.
