Chanelle Jaeger is among the many ways that ATC can hurt you this spring. Contributed photo.
2A Girls
Cloudcroft eked out a state title last spring, but it's entirely possible that this year's contest could be closer than last year's--at least among the top two or three teams. If you like down-to-the-last-event kind of suspense, there may be no better place to find it this spring than 2A Girls.
Cloudcroft will be back in the mix this year--and with largely the same cast as last year.
Ajia Hughes is arguably the top athlete in the classification. And she is a threat to win state titles in the high jump, long jump, 100 hurdles, triple jump, and javelin--plus whatever relay or relays (assuming she drops one or more individual events) she runs on. Forget that she's one of the top athletes in 2A girls; she's one of the top athletes in the state, period.
Kaylee Hickman and Britney Hickman also figure to do their fair share of damage. Both are accomplished throwers, but Kaylee adds some sprinting to the mix. And then there's Tylie Eamello in the long jump and Kyah Gilliam in the pole vault.
Cloudcroft won't score points across the board, but they will score points. And plenty of them.
Figuring as the stiffest challenge to Cloudcroft this spring are the reigning state champions in cross country--the Academy for Tech and Classics. We may have a dynasty building here.
A team that wins state cross country definitely has some distance talent. Maggie Rittmeyer, Lily Rittmeyer, Kamryn Hoehne, and Josette Gurule give ATC a formidable presence in the distance events. In fact, Coach Host is going to have to continue to spread these girls around to keep from competing against himself too much in distance events.
But distance isn't the only card in the ATC deck. Chanelle Jaeger and Noelani Van Loon are versatile athletes who try to limit their specialties to sprinting and jumping in track. Kate Ferguson and Chloe Lujan skim the hurdles. Naomi Lujan and Rachel Baten do gymnastics on a stick. Madison Northrup throws. All are stalking state meet points this spring.
This is a diverse and capable team. If they're not on your watch list, you need a new watch list. And soon.
The one team with a realistic chance of hunting down one or both of Cloudcroft and ATC is Loving. Loving has quite a history in track and field and finished third last spring, but only six points out of first. The Falcons figure to rely heavily on Bianca Solano and Parys Rodriguez. Solano was used heavily on relays at state last year but also returns the top 2A marks in the 400 and triple jump (though Ajia Hughes won the triple jump state title last spring). Rodriguez also saw relay duty, but returns 2A's top mark in the 100. Emily Rios gives the Falcons a scoring threat in the distance events. Faith McDonald does the same in the throws.
Capitan, last year's runner-up, has some filling in to accomplish from last year's graduation. Good teams tend to bring along talent to replace talent that graduates, so we at least hold a place here for Capitan to return to prominence again this year. But, again, they'll have to develop the talent if they're to get there. The top returning talent for Capitan this year is likely sprinter and relay leg Kalynn Bowser.
The best athlete we haven't yet mentioned is very possibly Jal's Karina Nieto. She's a sprinter/jumper type, but the Panthers will need to give Nieto a lot of support we haven't seen yet to make a run at a top position at state.