Three years after winning the Tri-County Athletic League championship as a then-freshman runner, all senior track and field captain Darian Maroney wanted to do in her final year was to get another championship patch.
To get there, though, the Balers needed to beat Salinas — a team that had given them trouble over the past few years. It was a showdown that both the girls and boys track teams thought about from the beginning of the year.
“This is pretty much going to be the finals with the other teams,” San Benito hurdler Lucas Haro said. “It’s going to be us and Salinas right now. Everyone always brings their best when it’s Salinas. It’s time to go. It’s time to PR (personal record). This is what we’ve been waiting for pretty much.”
The girls and boys track team responded and kept their undefeated dual-meet record intact, squeezing by the Cowboys in Salinas on Thursday.
The girls clinched their 76-59 victory with four events left — allowing the Balers to rest some runners such as Vanessa Estrada — but the boys final came down to the last races.
It was so close between the boys squads — the Balers won 71-65 — the team thought it lost after San Benito’s David Kret finished five feet away from Salinas in the 4×400 relay — the day’s final race. That wasn’t the case, though.
“We actually were able to pull it off,” boys head coach Iran White said the following day after the scores were tallied.
At the event White believed the Balers finished in second for the first time during the TCAL year.
“The guys came and gave their best effort to win,” White said. “We will see them in the finals.”
The boys also won shorthanded, without all-league sprinter Taylor Lothman.
“We have some injuries, but all these kids, they really went to battle for me,” White said.
For the girls team, they continued to use their team-first mentality to gain an edge.
“I think camaraderie and team chemistry is one of the big secrets of high school sports,” San Benito girls coach Bob Rawles said. “You always listen to those teams if they win a championship and they always refer to that. ‘We were together. We were a family. This or that.’ The teams that didn’t win it say, ‘we just didn’t connect.’ This group of girls has connected beyond belief and we are seeing the results. I mean, they came up with a motto at the beginning of the year ‘never let success go to your head and never let failure go to your heart.’ With all these girls supporting themselves all the time, we have no problems with that.
He continued, “Track is an individual sport, but if you teach a team philosophy you’re going to win.”
And it worked.
The Balers continued to run well in long distances as Estrada took the 800 meters (2:21.57) and 1,600 meters (5:09.28) and R.J. Collins finished first in the 1,600 meters (4:31.64) and the 3,200 meters (9:59.83).Collins took the 1,600 meters by less than a foot over Salinas’ Bryan Tena. In the race, Collins trailed Tena for the majority of the race, before passing him in the final 200 meters to give the Balers the winning points.
“It was a close race, the whole time,” Collins said. “There was a lot of movement from the top five guys and then he took off in the last 200 so I just told myself that I needed to follow him. I couldn’t let him beat me. We needed the points. I just wanted to stay near him as long as I could to see if I could pass him at the end.”
He did just that.
“I got a second wind and I was able to keep the lead and just win it,” he said.
On the sprinter’s side for San Benito, Kret took first in the 200 meters (22.88) and the 400 meters (51.18). Maura Forbush ran the sprint races for the girls’ side, taking third in the 200 meters (27.84) and first in the 400 meters (61.10).
San Benito also controlled the throwing events, thanks to Zack Szyndrowski and Krystal Alnas.
The girls team took first and second in both the discus throw and shot put, as Alnas and sophomore Breanna Lowther won easily. Alnas continued to chase the school record in the discus — falling just short. Alnas threw the discus 131-04 feet for first place. Alnas tossed the shot put 35-07 for first as well. Regardless, she was happy that her team beat Salinas with ease, she said.
“I’m extremely proud of my team,” Alnas said. “I’ve never seen my team in this good of shape all four years. I’m beyond proud of them. We’ve picked it up every single meet. We’ve had PRs left and right. I’m extremely proud of them.”
The boys’ Szyndrowski also took first in the two events, tossing the discus 121-04 and the shot put 46.03.5. Overall, the girls team took first in eight out of the 16 events, but San Benito had someone place in every event they competed in. That success came from the team’s unification, said Maroney, who took second in the 100-meter hurdles and third in the 300-meter hurdles.
“It makes a big difference,” she said. “To know everybody, you make more friends and the younger girls are more comfortable with us. It really helped us come together. It made us more like a family. We all need to do good. Everybody needs to run this year.”
The victories Thursday give the Balers a chance to take the final TCAL championship on May 11 in Gilroy.
“That would be great to be the last team to win TCALs,” Collins said. “It would be something special.”
