Caleb Eppes figures to become the lead guy for the Rio Rancho Rams this fall. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Sue Cleveland High School has more or less had their way with things the last two years. But it may be a different story this fall without Luis Martinez, Matt Smith, and Dustin Enyeart wearing the familiar electric blue. Make no mistake, we're not talking about a bare cupboard here. Jared Mayoral, Preston Panana, and Aaron Flores form the nucleus of a pretty strong scoring lineup, but hope is not as distant for the other schools as it has been the last two years.
Clearly, Cleveland needs to solidify a couple of spots if they mean to remove the intrigue and mystery from this year's race. Somehow, you're reluctant to think they're incapable of doing exactly that. But maybe a bigger question for the Storm than replacing the spots in the scoring five is in dealing with what it means to the confidence of a team to lose a guy of the stature of Luis Martinez. Over the next four months, we should get a clue to the answer to that question.
In the meanwhile, there are other teams looking for a way to topple the regime.
Rio Rancho, though dealing with some losses to graduation of their own, may be in the best position to do it. Look for Caleb Eppes, Michael Goke, and Abran Ramos to be turning some heads. Sal Gonzales typically has a deep well to draw from, so it could be that the state title moves just a short distance across town. But we're way too far out from November 9 to be talking anywhere near the realm of certainty.
Eldorado and La Cueva are the two other teams most clearly in the hunt. Eldorado and La Cueva have a way of being in the hunt whether it's track or cross country we're talking about, and this fall should prove to be no exception.
Taylor Potter front runs for Eldorado, and his track season suggests he's ready to take that role on in a state-contending sort of way. Right behind him are proven veterans Adam Monroe and Derek Griego.
For La Cueva, it's Brett Fenton, Nathan Buttry, and a big need for some other guys to step up. La Cueva has a whole passel of 17-something guys returning from last year, but it figures to take 16-something guys to win it. We trust that summer training is going well for Nick Martinez and his crew.
Falling a bit under the heading of dark horse would be Cibola. Chris Harlow and Frankie Scorfina are proven, and behind them is a crew of something less than proven 17-somethings, but their track times from this spring suggest they could be 17-somethings. The same need to turn those into 16-somethings that applies to La Cueva would apply to Cibola as well.
Outside of these five schools, the field is probably relegated to looking for the kind of progress one year that springboards you to better things the next year. The gap these five have on the rest of the field is considerable and, unlike girls, the kind of help you get from freshmen (or, in some cases, 8th graders) usually isn't enough to change a team from an also-ran to a bona fide contender.