New Mexico Week in Review: March 17 - 23

73rd Chandler Rotary

It wasn't an especially large contingent of New Mexico athletes who made the trip to south suburban Phoenix, but those who did make the trip enjoyed a nice dose of both warmer and thicker air than what was to be had back home in New Mexico this weekend.

A quick list of highlights for the NM contingent reads thus:

Boys 3200 - Kyle Carrozza - 9:44; Marcos Serna - 9:51, Kevin Wyss - 9:52

Boys 800 - Austin Anaya - 2:00.84

Boys 1600 - A. J. Beach - 4:31

Girls 3200 - Julie Giannini - 11:40

Girls 800 - Jacqueline Katzman - 2:24.82

Girls 1600 - Jacqueline Katzman - 5:16

A nice set of early-season times to take back to New Mexico! With a little assist from the bonus oxygen in Chandler, Katzman's 1600, Anaya's 800, and Carrozza's 3200 assume state rankings leadership roles in those events.

Buddy Robertson Invitational (Milne)

There were plenty of nice performances to go around at this one. Sandia's Daniel Cones swept the 100 and 200 in nice times of 11.17 and 22.74. That clearly marks Cones as a state sprint contender. Sean Reardon of Los Alamos went a little shorter this week and finished his 800 in 2:01.71. In what may be the state's best distance tag-team operation, Nick Hill and Orion Staples took over at 1600 and 3200 to give the Hilltoppers a clean sweep of the distance events. 

Highland's Mustafa Mudada did a little clean sweeping of his own, winning the hurdle races in eye-popping times of 14.63 and 39.20. Those marks also park Mudada at the top of the statewide leaderboard in both events. Colby Stinson of Rio Rancho (shot put) and Tanner Kattenhorn of Eldorado (javelin) had very competitive early-season throwing marks. 

Anthony King of Highland (see cover photo) was all alone at the top of the pole vault competition at a nice, round 12-0.

Among the girls, Del Norte posted a couple of nice doubles with Jessica Scherrer turning aside all rivals in the 200 and 400 and Jenna Thurman doing the same at 800 and 3200 meters. Thurman's 2:20/11:31 set looks especially convincing at this early stage of the season. For good measure, Scherrer's 16.24 dominated the 100 hurdles as well.

Not to be outdone, Laura Wendelberger got a triple of her own, winning the 300 hurdles at 49.59, the long jump at 16-2, and the high jump at 5-5. With each week, the Wendelberger mystique seems to grow just a little bit more. 

Ultimately, though, depth wins invitationals, Eldorado's girls and Rio Rancho's boys had the most of that at this meet. Keep an eye on the Rio Rancho relays. The Rams seem to be moving the baton around the track very nicely in the season's early going.

Buddy Robertson Invitational (Wilson)

Those who went to the Wilson Stadium version of the Buddy Robertson ran into the Cleveland machine, and it is looking very much like a well-oiled machine even at this early stage of the season. Between Parker Jones, Brandon Lawrence, Dustin Enyeart, Luis Martinez, and a nice set of relays, the Storm left exactly one boys track event title to be shared among the other assembled teams. That honor went to Cibola's Cody Bassett in the 300 hurdles. It got only slightly better in the field events where Cleveland got wins from Parker Jones (high jump), Nainoa Biggs (long jump), Tyler Caldwell (triple jump), and Brandon Leitch (javelin).

Wins were only slightly harder to come by for the Cleveland girls, as they doubles out of Alex Winebark (shot put, discus) and Cassie McClintock (both hurdle events). Better still, the Storm got a triple win out of Elicia Gallegos (200, 400, long jump).

Moriarty Quad

It was a low-key meet. Even Moriarty's Austin Anaya was off in Phoenix staying warm while most everyone at the meet was reportedly freezing. Well, almost everyone. Estancia's Shane Ferreira had a big shot put of 48-0 to clear his way to state in May when thing should be warmer. Taos's Maranda Vigil may have had the top girls mark of the day with a state-qualifying (3A) long jump of 15-10.5. 

Piedra Vista Invitational

Farmington may have been even colder than Moriarty on Saturday, but, like Moriarty, Piedra Vista got the meet in. 

PV's Zhianna Flores delighted the home crowd by winning both the 100 and 200. Kerstin Ortiz, also of PV, got in on the fun with wins at 800, 1600, and 3200 meters. Between winning all three races and expending the energy to stay warm all day, it was probably a very sound night's worth of sleep for Ortiz.

Ultimately, however, a very strong set of throws marks and a 17-2 long jump/16.05 100 Hurdles for Sarah Root helped to push Aztec over the top in the team scoring. Aztec is definitely a team we should be hearing more of as the 4A girls team race warms up with the temperatures over the next six weeks or so. 

Zach Johnson did for PV in the boys 100 and 200 what Zhianna Flores did for the girls. Winning can be very effective. Wyatt Hardy, Harrison Fleming, and Brandon Levi tag-teamed the distance events. Beau Clafton had a big javelin throw, and PV rode the strength of these performances, plus a couple more event winners, to a resounding 26.5 point margin of victory over Farmington.

Farmington's day was paced by triple event winner (110H, 300H, LJ) Jeremy Klepac. If you'rehoping for a guess at Klepac's best mark of the day, I'd go with the 21-7 long jump. That's getting out there on a warm day, let alone a cold and blustery day. The statewide leaderboard would tend to agree, as it has Klepac's name and 21-7 at the top of the long jump rankings for now.

Ralph Bowyer Relays

Down south and on Friday, things were a little warmer.

If you forgot about Seraiah Pineda after cross country season, he's not going to stay out of sight and out of mind for long. At this meet, he won the 800 and 1600, the latter by a huge margin, and left with the promise of much more in store. Without Pineda's services, Hobbs nailed down four of the top five places in the 3200, making their calling card as the top distance program in southeastern New Mexico. Joseph Flotte took the win in 10:12. Darrence Taylor won the shot put at 50-9.5 to close the door on any speculation that Hobbs might be a one-dimensional kind of team. 

Hobbs also took the girls team title, but that came despite the best efforts of Robertson's Kristen Montano. Montano won the 100 at 12.72, the 200 at 26.35, and the long jump at 16-0.5. It's a long, long trip from Las Vegas to Carlsbad, but Montano made the effort pay off. 

For the blue-clad home team, Matney Huber had the biggest day, winning the 100 hurdles in 15.74 and the 300 hurdles in 48.61--a set of performances that puts her into a very nice position in the statewide rankings in both of those events. Artesia's Tiffany Cano bested the 400 field by over two seconds with another nice early-season mark.

White Sands Invitational

Alamogordo stayed home this weekend and hosted most of Las Cruces, plus a large share of El Paso. They call it the White Sands meet, but sunglasses are nice, not required at the Alamogordo track.

A good number of the local girls won races, but not necessarily in the events you would have guessed. Alamogordo's Virginia Norwood took top honors in the 100, Santa Teresa's Britani Gonzales in the 800, and Alamogordo's Alexandria Adams in the 300 hurdles to stir the contents of the pot around a little. Less under the category of unanticipated were Meghan Aguilera winning the 1600 and Joanna Miranda the 3200. Aguilera's 5:23 only continues to build her repuation in the four-lap event.

The homestanding Tigers collected some nice field event marks from Virginia Norwood (TJ, 36-1), Brittany Jaszai (HJ, 5-2) and Chanel Jackson (Discus, 123-4). Given that Jackson's seed mark was a modest 100-0, she probably qualifies as a find coming out of this weekend. Going from 100 feet to nipping at the heels of the statewide leader in the event all in one meet should have a number of people starting to think where the girls discus is concerned. Norwood's triple jump mark qualifies as a char-topping mark among New Mexico's triple jumpers.

Devin Enslen was edged by the narrowest of margin's by El Paso Chapin's Reggie Wiedemann in the 100, but found his redemption in the 200, beating Wiedemann 21.97 to 22.06. A nice collection of field event titles by Isaiah McIntyre (LJ, 21-0), Archie Hatol (PV, 11-0), and Garrett Stockton (HJ, 6-2) helped to push Alamogordo to the team title with 99 points.

Those 99 points, by the way, were identical to the point total for the Alamogordo girls, who also came away with a team title.