Las Cruces isn't the warmest place in New Mexico, but it's close enough that nobody is going to complain if you start the season there.
Judging by what we saw there, Onate is in a good position among the southern New Mexico schools. The Knights took home top honors among New Mexico schools present for both the boys and the girls. And, while May is still a long, long way off, you can build a lot of team confidence by taking top honors straight out of the gate.
For most athletes, an early season meet is simply an opportunity to get the feel of things once again. But a few of these athletes went beyond getting the feel of things to some honing of the blade.
Among those showing something like mid season form was sophomore Isaiah McIntyre of Las Cruces who won the 110 hurdles in 15.31. McIntyre made it a two-title afternoon with a 20-4 win in the long jump as well. Throws also went well for Las Cruces with Melody Reeves winning the girls shot put at 36-2 and Torion Brown picking up more or less where he left off last year to finish second, and ahead of all NM entries, in the boys shot put at 48-5.
Onate freshman Meghan Aguilera doubled up on the 1600 and 3200 fields, winning the 16 in 5:25 and the 32 in 11:28. From the southern part of the state, only Anna Olesinski ran a faster 3200 all last season, and she ran a scant eight seconds faster at state. Onate's Joseph Wood and Zac Rhodes showed something of their cross country fitness in finishing second and third in the 1600 at 4:47 and 4:52. Leiyona Young led Onate in the field events with a 15-9 mark to win the long jump.
Kacee Ramos and Isaiah Lerman breathed some new season life into the Mayfield sprint machine, sweeping the 100 meter titles, at least as far as New Mexico schools were concerned. Teammate Brandon Thelen's 6-4 mark in the high jump holds a lot of promise for later in the season.
Next weekend, meets spread out and away from Las Cruces to places like Santa Teresa and Socorro. If that's not where you live, you won't have long to wait before there will be a meet contested in your vicinity.
Please note: The times from this meet were handheld times. While the meet results are published exactly as reported from the meet itself, for purposes of rankings (both New Mexico and nationwide) the results from this meet have been adjusted to meet standards for reporting of handheld times.