Benito Earns All-American in the 1500 Meters

Competing in his second 3C2A State Championship, former Palma High School product Moises Benito was hoping to become Hartnell College's second consecutive 1500 meter champion. Despite finishing just fourth at the Northern California Champioship. Benito had been improving each week across events ranging from 800 meters to 5000 meters. As a freshman, he placed eighth but was a non-factor for most of the race. In this year's edition, Benito pushed a quick early pace through the first 400 meters before a pair of Mt. SAC runner would slow the pace down over the next lap. After escaping a box of runners, Benito would surge to the front just before the bell and gain a 10 meter advantage over the field. He would hold the lead nearly the whole final lap before being overtaken by Matthew Donis of Mt. SAC. Benito's time of 3:50.48 was a season and lifetime best by over 3 seconds and moved him to third all-time in Hartnell history. His time was fastest than last year's winning time by teammate Esteban Deniz but not quite enough to become Hartnell's fifth ever champion in the event. Benito does close out his career as the Coast Conference Champion in both the 1500 and 800 meter runs. 

Freshman Julian Vargas will look to assume Benito's role as leader next year as he was fifth in the 10,000 meters on Friday. Vargas, unafraid to push a fast pace, took the race out in 15:03 through the first 5000 meters but then struggled over the remaining 13 laps. He would just miss All-American by one spot in 31:11.96. Vargas would return on Saturday night and lead the 5000 meters through 2400 in a swift 6:58 and 3200 in 9:18. A mid-race altercation with a Mt. SAC runner would cause an eventual disqualification but Vargas was the fouth runner to cross the finish line unofficially in 14:37. 

Sophomore Joshua Shimoda advanced to the javelin championship and placed eleventh in 48.44m. Mario Avila also placed eleventh in the 10,000 meters in 32:26.62, just missing his personal best by two seconds.