Most college distance runners spend their first two years after high school logging mileage, dropping times and chasing conference qualifying marks. Ben Hernandez spent his walking the streets of Mexico City.
The 21-year-old Philomath High Class of 2023 graduate has returned to competitive running at Western Oregon University after a two-year mission through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and he’s already turning a layoff into a learning curve.
Missionaries voluntarily leave their homes to share the gospel and serve communities. For Hernandez, that meant Mexico City — and pretty much no running.
“At least I was at a high altitude and I walked enough down there so I think that definitely gave me a little boost,” he laughed. “I remember coming back and I tried jumping into a 60-mile week (of training) and that was not it, so I had to cool it down a little bit and build back up.”
Hernandez had been recruited in 2023 to compete in cross-country and track at Western Oregon, where coach Zach Holloway proved understanding about the two-year pause.
“He understood the mission, he understood my goals with that and also my desire to continue running,” Hernandez said. “So I was able to actually put my scholarship on hold for the two years.”
The mission changed him.
“I grew a lot, I definitely matured a lot,” he said. “Running wise, I really didn’t get too much of an opportunity to run while on the mission so I kind of jumped right into it in July of last year and I’ve been running ever since.”
One of eight children in the family of Sal and Marty Hernandez, Ben has an older sister and brother along with three younger brothers and two younger sisters.
He opened his return to competition with the indoor season, running the mile and the 3,000 at a late-January meet at the University of Washington. The outdoor schedule took him to Oregon State, his home track at Western Oregon and Lewis and Clark College before the GNAC Outdoor Championships at Central Washington.
Across the spring, Hernandez competed in four events — the 800, 1,500, 5,000 and 3,000 steeplechase. His best finish came April 18 at the Larry Byerly Invitational at Lewis and Clark, where he placed second out of 17 in the steeplechase with a time of 9:30.42, roughly 9 seconds behind the winner.
The steeplechase wasn’t the original plan.
“I first ran a 1,500 and an 800 but it wasn’t quite good enough to make it for conference,” Hernandez said, referring to his appearance at the PNW Invite at OSU. “Then my coach was like, ‘hey, you could try steeple, you’ve got a good shot.'”
His debut in the event?
“It was really rough, really rough,” he said.
The followup at Lewis and Clark went much better. Hernandez climbed steadily through the field, moving from sixth on the fourth lap to fourth on the fifth, third on the sixth and second on the seventh, holding that position through the finish. Ashton Drage of the College of Idaho led wire to wire.
“That qualified me for conference and I think put me at like eighth in the conference,” Hernandez said.
He went on to finish 14th at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet with a time of 10:06.77.
“Conference was a tough race, it was pretty dang hot, and then it didn’t quite end how I wanted but I went out pretty hard,” he said. “It was fun race but I have things to learn.”
Last fall in cross-country, Hernandez opened in mid-September at the Ash Creek Collegiate meet in Monmouth, placing 26th in the 6,000 with a time of 19:51.00. He followed with a 26:30.2 in the 8,000 at an October meet in Texas and ran a 33:28.6 in the 10,000 at the NCAA Division II West Regional Championships on Nov. 8 in Monmouth.
Hernandez said he redshirted in cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track, leaving him with four years of eligibility remaining.
“Looking ahead, I’m pretty excited,” he said. “I came off my mission in July of 2025, so my cross-country season was basically whatever I could muster up in two months of training. My indoor season was like five months of training and then I saw a little bit of a training block before outdoor track but I’m excited to see what I can do this next time around after actually training.”
Hellesto flying high
Janice Hellesto’s freshman year at George Fox couldn’t have wrapped up much better.
The 2025 Philomath High graduate earned First Team All-American honors May 21 at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships in La Crosse, Wisconsin, placing fourth in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 5.5 inches.
The jump came up just one inch shy of the George Fox program record of 19-6.5, set by Asia Greene in May 2016 — also at the national championships.
Hellesto, who is majoring in nursing at the Newberg school, entered the meet as the seventh seed in the long jump and one of three women representing the Bruins in Wisconsin. George Fox sent six athletes total to nationals, the second-most of any program in the Northwest Conference.
She set the stage for the trip a week earlier at the GFU Last Chance Meet in Newberg, where a personal-best jump of 19-4.75 moved her into seventh nationally and cemented her qualifying position. According to George Fox, Hellesto was “by far the big winner of the meet” for the Bruins that day.
Hellesto left PHS with an extensive resume that included contributions to four straight state titles for the Warriors in girls track and field from 2022 through 2025. Individually, she captured the long jump state title in 2023 and 2025, the 100- and 200-meter state titles in 2025, the 4-by-100 relay title in 2024 and the 400 and 4-by-400 relay titles in 2022. She was also named the meet’s top athlete in 2023.
Beam, floor and gold
Philomath’s Faith Gonzalez-Bush brought home a regional championship last month, capturing the all-around title in her division at the 2026 USA Gymnastics Region 2 Development Regional Championships in Kennewick, Washington.
Competing for PEAK Elite Gymnastics Academy of Corvallis, Gonzalez-Bush posted a 37.750 all-around score to win the Level 6, Junior D division. She finished first on both balance beam and floor exercise, scoring 9.600 on each, and added a tie for third on uneven bars at 9.225 and a tie for fifth on vault at 9.325.
The three-day meet, held April 10-12 and hosted by Garland’s Gymnastics, drew qualifiers from across Region 2 — one of the largest geographic regions in USA Gymnastics, covering Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Athletes earned their spots at regionals by hitting a 34.00 all-around qualifying score at their respective state championships.
Level 6 is part of USA Gymnastics’ Development Program, a competitive track that runs from Level 1 through Level 10 and serves as the traditional pathway for athletes pursuing elite and collegiate gymnastics.
Gonzalez-Bush trains at PEAK Elite Gymnastics Academy, a family-run gym in Corvallis that opened in 2018.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
