NMAA State Cross Country Championship Preview: 4A Girls

Albuquerque Academy Invite (photo by Jaren Brooks)

Familiar Challengers emerge in 4A

We are back at it with powerhouses like Albuquerque Academy and Los Alamos once again dueling for their share of the 4A crown. St.Pius enters having notched a single-point victory of Academy at districts and shouldn't be underestimated. Missing from this picture is Hope Christian that did not qualify their girl's team in this very limited season. Kirtland Central and Miyamura only qualifying individual runners while 6th place Taos and 9th place Lovington from last season enters with perhaps some of the squads that could challenge for a podium spot. In a year where every runner counts with a five max limit competing per school its fare to say a classification no stranger to single-digit victories could see one of the closest finales of recent memory.

Individuals

The teams may not be competing but there is plenty of individual runners that could be in state champion contention on Friday from around New Mexico. We start with some front runners from 2019 including Norissa Valdez the defending champ whose seemingly greatest challenge was from teammate Sophie Chadwick. Chadwick will not be competing among 4A and along with  Taos' former All-State runner Alyx Mastor (competing for Cottonwood Classical). Getting to those solo runners with the potential to shine we have Miyamura's Lorianna Piestewa (5th) and Kirtland Central's Aisha Ramone (6th) who finished seconds behind each other. Shiprock's leading runner in Kaydence Platero will seek to improve upon her top 10 finish from last season while Academy's dynamic trio in Katie Patton, Emma Patton, and Grace Archibeck is always a challenge. Another Hilltopper to not forget is Emma Montoya who will be relied on to score some major points for her squad.

4A State Qualifers

Teams	State Qualifiers
Albuquerque Academy	Alexis Aquino Espanola Valley
Aztec	Hailey Renteria Espanola Valley
Belen	Iyessa Arriaga Grants
Chaparral	Skylar Charlie Grants
Highland	Ally Lara Goddard
Los Alamos	Morgan Waltmire Goddard
Lovington	Taylor Poncho Grants
Portales	Autumn Harrison Kirtland Central
Santa Teresa	Aisha Ramone Kirtland Central
Shiprock	Lorianna Piestewa Miyamura
St. Pius	Rebekah McMurtrey Moriarty
Taos	Stella Jaramillo Valley