New Mexico Week in Review: September 16 - 22

Madison Foley and Mikayla Pulliam lead the Los Alamos pack through the middle portion of Friday's race at Socorro. Photo by Blake Wood.

 

Belen Adron Gardner Classic

Anyone who wasn't believing earlier in the season surely is by now. Arena Lewis of Belen is the real thing. In a race without Claire Archibeck (plus a few more of the AA regulars), the Belen ace beat the field by 1:17 for an easy win. But even easier yet was the Albuquerque Academy team win.

The theme of "Chargers to the Front!" was echoed in the boys race. Led by a first from Ryan Lesansee, the Chargers went 1-2-4-5-7 for another win. 

This weekend, Albuquerque Academy hosts their annual big event on Friday afternoon. They won't get Los Alamos at their meet, but they will get to test their progress agains a very large number of the best teams in the state.

Meet Results

Girls Highlights

Cobre XC Invitational

The consensus of opinion has this one pegged as a tough course. The times produced on Saturday wouldn't dispute that fact. Tough course or no, Onate freshman Meghan Aguilera continued her impressive winning streak with a 20:00, with a 33-second win over Britani Gonzales of Santa Teresa.

Onate continues to impress among the southern schools, with the Knights sweeping both team titles.

Onate's Meghan Aguilera picks her way up Vomit Hill on the Cobre course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On-Site Coverage

Laguna-Acoma Invitational

Even with a runner out of action, Laguna-Acoma continues to dominate the boys competition wherever they go. The Hawks, however, will face their biggest test yet this Friday when they roll into Albuquerque for the Albuquerque Academy Invitational. At that point, a lot of speculation about this team will move over into well-informed judgment. L-A #1 Patrick Keyope will be one of those people everyone will be watching at the AA meet. This week, he won in 18:08. He figures to be faster at AA.

The East Mountain girls made the trip over for this one and came back with a trophy for their efforts, more or less dismantling Jemez Valley, Gallup, and Laguna-Acoma. Addison Rauch took an individual title in 22:52.

Pecos Ron Valdez Sr. Memorial

The didn't need a wide start line for this meet, but they did have to hustle to the finish line to get there ahead of Alonzo Chavez of Mora. Chavez dusted the course in 15:51, good enough for 74 seconds of margin in the win column. Pecos lost the battle but won the war, taking a relatively easy team title in their home meet.

Janice Chacon of Coronado also took an easy individual title, just not by the kind of margin the Chavez opened up in his race. 

Meet Results

Boys Highlights

Socorro Stampede

Luis Martinez leads Sean Reardon through s sharp turn early on the Socorro course. Photo by Blake Wood.

A lot of people had been waiting for this one, not the least of whom may have been the Cleveland boys. In a reversal of the opening weekend result, Cleveland edged Los Alamos, 1-2-8-9-13 (33) to 3-4-7-10-12 (36). You could probably run this a dozen times and have a pretty even split between teams. Twelve seconds separated the team times of the two titans.

As expected, Luis Martinez took the win, this time in 15:45. Also as expected, Los Alamos packed them in tightly. It's a shame these teams won't have another showdown at state.

As good as the boys race was, however, the girls race wasn't even close. Only one girl managed to wedge her way in between the Los Alamos scoring five of Madison Foley, Mikayla Pulliam, Talia Dreicer, Jordan Parker, and Nica Vasquez who went 3-4-5-6-8. And, if these names don't quite ring as familiar to you yet, that may be because three of them are freshmen.

Cleveland served notice that they will be around to be dealt with in 5A by cramming three into the remaining top ten places after Los Alamos was done doing their thing.

On-Site Coverage

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

Wingate XC Invitational

This must have been the weekend for tough courses. Like a few others, this one took its toll on runners' times.

Binahni Curley of Window Rock took his second win in New Mexico in as many weeks.Shawvan Levi of Shiprock topped all New Mexico finishers. Navajo  Prep's Amber Manuelito was an eight-second winner over Wingate's Tanaya Belone for the girls title. Adding to Manuelito's pleasure in the win was a convincing team title for Navajo Prep.