A slightly skeptical group of runners stares down a starter in an almost-too-short chicken suit at Saturday's ATC Everybody Invitational. Photo by Blake Wood.
Weather changed a few things last week in New Mexico. The weather data all agree, New Mexico is the next-to-driest state in the Union. But the last several days have been a glorious exception to that rule.
Into the middle of the rain and mud, somebody plopped a cross country meet called the ATC Everybody Invitational. And everybody apparently includes chickens with firearms. Because that's how things got started.
Initially, this was to be a small school meet, but, through a variety of circumstances, larger schools like Belen, Santa Fe, and Los Alamos got in on the act. Which is not the same as saying the larger schools came away with all of the honors.
Los Alamos did take both team titles, and Colin Hemez outlasted Zachary Grand of Santa Fe for the boys individual title, but nobody--large school or small--had any answers for the kind of race a rain-drenched Rachel Fleddermann (photo, left) put on. Fleddermann ran six seconds ahead of Santa Fe's Noel Prandoni and 22 seconds ahead of the first cresting of the Green Wave of Los Alamos.
The team scoring was very interesting from a 3A perspective. The St. Michael's boys ran well ahead of Pojoaque, beating the Elks at every scoring postion except #1 where Jereme Santistevan prevailed over Troy Pacheco. Santa Fe Indian School and Hope Christian came next in the order. In 3A girls it was Sandia Prep easily over St. Michael's, with Pojoaque sliding in behind St. Michael's.
If you're a betting person, be careful that you don't get caught betting against this meet being bigger next year. If they keep the "Everybody" in the meet title, they might eventually get there.