Last Week in New Mexico XC: Sept. 28 - Oct. 5

 

Cibola's Chris Harlow scored a nice victory last friday at the Highland Invitational. Photo by Alan Versaw.

Granted this post is mid-week, but postponing this article allowed for another meet to be included in the run down. So let's look back before we start looking forward.

Desert Twilight XC Festival

This was capital “f”, uppercased FAST. Just how fast you may wonder? To borrow a recent quote from CU’s Coach Mark Wetmore that adequately describes the races, “if you sneeze, 5 people will go by you.”

Small School Varsity

The Shiprock Lady Chieftains kicked off the action with Lacey Howe and Megan Johnson running 19:19 and 19:21. The Lady Chieftains used a 69 second Pack Time to secure a team victory. In the Boys Race, Shawven Levi placed 2nd in 16:12, helping his teammates place fourth.

Championship

St. Michael’s Jordyn Romero ran to a 8th place individual finish, also the highest NM placer in the race, helping her team to a 10th place finish. Piedra Vista was in the race as well, finishing 8th with a 20:44 Team Average. In the boys race, Austin Luttrell powered the Horsemen to a 6th place finish with his 16:33 31st place finish.

Sweepstakes

Oh boy.

Madison Foley took top NM Honors with her 17:53 12th place finish, helping the Lady Hilltoppers to a 5th place finish with a 18:43 Team Average. Rio Rancho finished 3rd behind a 63 second Pack Time and a, wait for it, 18:28 Team Average.

Devin Paredes led the Rio Rancho Ram charge with his 15:44 (28th place) clocking. Behind Paredes, the Rams took another 31 seconds to complete their scoring finishing 5th with a 15:59 Team Average. The Los Alamos boys packed it up with a ridiculous 12 second Pack Time, averaging 16:05 which helped them place 6th. And finishing in 18th place, Piedra Vista took 49 seconds to complete their scoring while averaging 16:36.

 

On-Site Coverage

Meets on Tap for 10/4 Weekend: Great American, flrunners, Alaska State Meet!

We look ahead to the October 4th weekend ahead in the latest "Meets on Tap" with North Carolina drawing most of the national attention on Saturday with Great American and Wendy's, while the Desert Twilight Festival on Friday in Arizona will have a great individual matchup between Katie Rainsberger and Dani Jones with fast times expected. MileSplit will be doing it LIVE with a stream of Florida's largest meet in the flrunners.com Invitational, while the first state meet of the season will be up in the far Northwest with the Alaska state championships led by Allie Ostrander and Levi Thomet. 

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

Gallup Curtis Williams Invitational

As of last year, Red Rock State Park has been running faster than usual and the trend continued this year. Miyamura’s Niles Thomas and Nicholas Jamison went 1-2, but Zuni flexed their team muscle outdistancing the Patriots 39-83.

In the Girls Race, the Gallup Lady Bengals defended home turf by turning back both Window Rock and cross-town rival Miyamura 36-54-67. District 1-5A looks to be shaping up to be a very interesting race.

On-Site Coverage

You are cordially invited…

The Los Alamos Hilltoppers will be toeing the line at the Desert Twilight Invitational in Casa Grande, Arizona Friday Evening. Photo by Rod Stanopeiwicz.

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

Highland Invitational

Jessie Hix, Esther Beck, Melia Macias broke clear from the pack going 1-2-3 helping the Lady Eagles to their second consecutive victory in as many weeks. Cibola took runner-up honors with 59 points, while Clovis, who made the trip north, took 3rd with 84 points.

In the boys race, Cibola’s Chris Harlow clocked 16:39.26 just edging Eldorado’s Louis Bernardore 16:39.97. Harlow helped the Cougars secure their first team victory since the Albuquerque Invite.

La Cueva XC Invite - Bear Cave Brawl

Natasha Bernal, 18:28. Natasha Bernal, 54 second margin of victory. Natasha Bernal, 21 second new Course Record. Natasha Bernal, 5-0. Wow. Bernal’s single point in the Team Scoring helped the Lady Bears eek out a victory over Volcano Vista and St. Pius X 39-40-49.

Like Bernal, La Cueva’s Nathan Buttry enjoyed an individual victory. Despite Buttry’s 11 second margin victory, the Volcano Vista Hawks edged the host Bears 31-36. Scoring 90 points for third was the Lovington Wildcats who made the trip north.

SFIS John Grimley Invitational

Roy Madrid and Donevan Gravelle went 1-2 for Taos helping the Tigers to a 45-63 over the Pecos Panthers. Just behind the top two were Laguna-Acoma and East Mountain.

Addison Rauch made it four individual victories in a row with her 27 second margin of victory. In the team battle, the Santa Fe Sierra Sweeney broke the 91-91 tie between the Lady Demons and Rauch’s Lady Timberwolves. Oddly, according to the results, the Taos Lady Tigers (Super Cinco #5) did not field a scoring team.

Valencia XC Invitational

Aaron Valenzuela’s 15:32 and teammate Jared Garcia’s 16:05 helped Belen secure top team honors, as Estancia’s Jakob Bernal saw his win streak end at four despite his 16:04.

In the gilrs race, host Valencia’s Carisma Lovato put 18 seconds on Belen’s Arena Lewis 18:01-18:19 and helped her Jaguars secure the girls team title.

Don’t sleep on the Valencia Jaguars. A solid showing at their home meet shows they’ll need to be reckoned with come District time.

Meet Results

Girls Highlights