Only One Casualty Among Weekend's Meets

Sandia Prep's Denise Alba and Pojoaque's Mikayla Garcia battle in the 100 at Thursday's Sandia Prep Invitational. Photo by John Vestal, Sports Fanatic Photography.

Of all the meets in the state scheduled for the past weekend, only the Farmington Early Bird bit the dust. Well, in this case, it bit the must. It was a hard rain on Saturday that did the meet in.

 

Chile Quad

The Chile Quad has already been covered in the article below. The executive summary of the article is that Rio Rancho won the meet, while Albuquerque Academy and Los Alamos went home with the most state quals. All teams seemed to be running a little light on the top-end talent, but that's more or less to be expected at this time of year.

On-Site Coverage

Sending Reservations Ahead to State

Sean Reardon, Marcos Serna, Preston Charlie, Aric Kedge and Daniel Romero keep things close at the front of the boys 3200. Photo by Lisa Brunacini.

El Paso Socorro Invitational

Alamogordo showed up for this one. Alamogordo goes to Texas a lot.

If you thought Chrisanto Fierro threw well last week, you'll be even more impressed with his discus throw of 168-9 from this week. Devin Enslen ran 11.06 and 11.03 (FAT) in the prelims and finals of the 100, respectively. That was good enough to win the meet. Virginia Norwood picked up two wins for the traveling Tigers, taking the 200 in 27.14 and the triple jump in 36-0. Those, at least, were the highest of the highlights for Alamogordo.

Meet Results

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

Grants Qualifier

Weather wasn't exactly conducive to nice performances at this one, but they ran the meet, anyway. Top team performances were turned in by Grants, Miyamura, and Rehoboth Christian. The Rehoboth both looked especially strong for a 2A entry up against several larger schools. 

Most promising performances on the day included a 2:10.19 for Ben Kruis (Rehoboth), a 10:28 3200 for Patrick Keyope (Laguna-Acoma), and a 21-2 long jump from Cassius Corley (Grants). Corley's jump was easily a state qualifying mark; indeed, it ranks as something of an intimidating mark at this point in the season. Jacob Riley (L-A) and Tyrell Natewa (Rehoboth) joined Keyope as 3200 meter state qualifiers. Keyope also qual'd the 1600 with a 4:48.

For the girls, Miyamura's Cara PePauli dominated the 100 and 200. There may be something there worth keeping an eye on for the next few weeks. Just a hunch. Interestingly, she also won the discus, but not with the same level of performance as her 100 and 200. Of course, discus can be a difficult event under windy conditions, so we'll check back there, too, to see what another week brings.

Los Lunas Invitational

Jonathan Millar, Hope Christian's big guy, is already up to big things with a shot put over 53 feet and a discus over 160. He could put the implements on the shelf right now and have his place at state reserved, but don't look for that to happen. Bigger throws lie ahead. Hope also got state qualifying marks out of Josh Diltz (3200) and Anna Duvall (pole vault, 100 hurdles). Although Diltz ran 10:22, he didn't end up the event winner. That honor went to Austin Anaya of Moriarty, who must aspire to a higher state-qualifying standard in 4A. Duvall did win the pole vault, but not the 100 hurdles. Winning the 100 hurdles, and qualifying for state, was Kaitlyn Craig of Valenica in 16.40. 

Still more state qualifying marks came from Valencia's Joshua Burbank, Onate's Meghan Aguilera, and Moriarty's Justin Manning. Aguilera will be ditching her mark from this meet as she has already run the 3200 faster than her time from Saturday. Burbank and Manning own the distinction of qualifying for state by the hairs of their chinny-chin-chins. Both exactly matched the qualifying marks, with Manning going 21-0 in the long jump and Burbank 11.00 in the 100. 

On-Site Coverage

Meet Results

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

Sandia Prep Invite

In case you forgot, or in case it seems like a long time ago, this meet ran on Thursday. Considering how the weekend turned out, this may have been the most favorable day of the week to run a track meet. 

Amanda Babicke put in a cameo appearance at this meet, but it was enough to win the 100. Rachel Fleddermann put in a much longer appearance, taking a little less than 18 minutes to win both the 1600 and 3200. AJ Beach ran a nice 2:03 to take the boys 800, and joining Fleddermann in the ranks of very early state qualifiers. 

Mostly, however, this meet had the look of some serious post-winter rust-busting. There are bigger and better things to come from each of the four teams making their way to the Menaul track late last week.