Only a junior, San Benito track and field star Jason Roascio has
turned into a legitimate threat to take multiple titles at the
Central Coast Section Championships
HOLLISTER
Jason Roascio stood in Lane 4 under the early-evening light on Friday in Los Gatos. With the Hollister “H” emblazoned across his chest and his skin-tight, midnight-black pants making him look swift even in a stationary position, the San Benito junior appeared focused and poised for the forthcoming 200-meter race.
He was calm. He would later say he felt a little fatigued, having previously run the second leg of the 4×100 relay as well as the 400-meter event, but that was impossible to tell at this point. He worked on his start, did several high-knee exercises, and he wasn’t shy enough to back down from meeting and greeting with several of his competitors.
The competition was out to get him, of course. But despite being new to the track-and-field spotlight, and even new to the sport itself, Jason Roascio hasn’t let much sidetrack him from the finish line this season.
“I’m thinking about the race, thinking about performing,” Roascio said. “But I’m also making sure I’m having fun.”
At a moment when it can become all too easy to let the mind wander, and let nerves set in the pit of the stomach, Roascio instead enjoys the moment.
After all, he was competing in the exclusive Top 8 Track and Field Classic on Friday night — the last remaining precursor to the Central Coast Section Championships — and even boasted the fastest recorded time in the 200 meters to date.
In other words, he was the man to beat. But while some may crumble under those top-spot standards, Roascio only sees it as another challenge.
“If you hold back, they’ll take it from you,” Roascio said. “Once you start worrying too much, that’s when you start messing up.
“You want to perform at your best and make sure you don’t lose that position. It’s not a fear. It’s like when you earn something, you don’t want to lose it because you worked for it.”
The San Benito junior has worked for everything he’s earned so far this season, and recently wrapped up an impressive two-week slate against some of the best competition the section has to offer.
Two weeks ago at the Bill Kearney Invitational in Salinas, he clocked a CCS-best time of 21.94 in the 200 meters and a 49.50 in the 400 meters, which positioned him third in the section.
At Los Gatos on Friday, he was unable to improve upon his top time in the 200, but recorded a 22.03, nevertheless, and secured first place at Top 8 as a result.
In the 400, meanwhile, he ran a 48.63 and finished three one-hundredths of a second behind Bellarmine’s Andre Chapman, whose 48.60 is now the fastest recorded time in the CCS this season.
As any consolation, though, Roascio’s time in the 400 did break the San Benito High School record of 48.99, while later in the evening, running the anchor leg, Roascio helped the 4×400 relay team set a first-place and season-best time of 3:24.74.
It was the fourth sprint event of the day for Roascio, who was pleased the weekend, and all of its spare hours to sleep through, hadn’t even started yet.
“You have to be able to drown out those voices that tell you to stop,” Roascio said. “You’ve got to keep going, keep fighting through. You don’t hold back.”
Roascio’s drive in track is completely new. Attending Maze Middle School, Roascio was a football player first, a volleyball player second. Track really wasn’t even on the radar at that point.
“I didn’t think I was fast,” he said.
But when foot races with friends in the eighth grade turned into 5-on-1 competitions for fairness purposes — everyone against Roascio — the Hollister resident figured he might have a talent that could keep him in shape during the football offseason.
“But I wasn’t horrible at track, so I stuck with it,” he added.
San Benito head coach Iran White was speaking of Roascio’s potential two years ago as a freshman, but the rookie trackster had his tonsils taken out early in the season and was then sidelined with a hamstring injury for the remainder of the year.
“I could see the potential even then. We just had to wait until his sophomore season to start seeing it,” White said. “He’s become a meticulous athlete on how he prepares himself. He knows that if you slack off during warm-ups, your season can end.
“It’s happened to him before.”
Roascio soaks up what his competitors say, what his teammates say, and has tried to use it to his advantage. He’s well aware of what nerves can do in a race, what injuries can do to a season, and how quickly all can be lost.
“After a race, you might here a guy say, ‘I could have done better. I didn’t go out all the way because I was nervous,'” he said. “You learn from that.”
Fellow Baler Scott Medina isn’t surprised by Roascio’s speedy start. He has been friends with Roascio since kindergarten, and says the sprinter is extremely tough and doesn’t stop.
“I’ve had two offseasons with him and he’s never stopped,” Medina said. “He pushes harder than anyone.
“Top 8 is the only place he’s been pushed in the 400, and he goes out and sets the school record. He’s just dominated.”
Track took a backseat last year, however, when Roascio’s mother, Holly, passed away due to complications stemming from breast cancer. It was understandably a difficult time for the then-sophomore, who was fresh off competing at the state track meet with the 4×400 relay team.
“It was very difficult. I just lost my mom,” Roascio said. “It was hard, but I knew that I needed to keep going. Life moves on, and I knew that I needed to move on also.
“My mom always liked that I ran track. She knew I was good at it. She would have told me to get back out there.”
Using track as a release and finding support among his teammates, Roascio took little time off from offseason practice following his mother’s passing.
And he hasn’t stopped since.
With the CCS Championships one month away, Roascio has a strong chance of earning multiple titles as a junior. But he’s taking it all in stride.
“I don’t consider myself the underdog,” he said. “But I don’t consider myself the best out there, to where I have nothing to worry about.”
