New Mexico Cross Country Countdown Series

The New Mexico Cross Country Countdown breaks down the top 25 New Mexico boys and girls teams returning this fall. These rankings will include projected top runners and weighing how each team may do in their respective districts and state competitions. Changes to class alignments and adaptions to the state championship format have been taken into consideration. These rankings are based on past two seasons of performances and do not include teams that did not compete last year due to a lack of athletes and team information. All top returning runners are only projections and may include athletes no longer on the team due to transfer or out-of-state relocation.

#21 Pecos Panthers

Pecos boys have remained a consistent challenge in class A/2A for the past few years going back to their incredible three straight state titles from 2015 to 2017. The Panthers are coming off a runner-up finish from this spring and will hope that despite a pair of departures that they will remain on the podium this fall. Led by senior Antonio Garcia who comes off a 5th place finish from the last state meet, Israel Villegas and Abel Strock round out the top returners who also were a part of that 2nd place team finish. This is a team that has a recent history of success including 7 individual state champions going back to 2007. At the moment with defending champs Cloudcroft in a rebuild, the Panthers have a chance to once again hoist the blue trophy in November if they can find the right additions to the prestigious program.

A/2A Boys

2020 State finish: 2nd

State Titles: 1999, 2015, 2016, 2017

Individual State Champions: Mario Armijo (2007), Antonio Varela (2009,2010,2011), Josh Deherrera (2014), Julian Garcia (2015, 2016)

2021 Pecos Rankings

New Mexico Rankings	21st
A/2A Rankings	2nd
District 2-A/2A Ranking	1st

Top Returning Runners

Name	Grade	Personal best	Best State Finish
Antonio Garcia	Sr	18:01	5th
Israel Villegas	Jr	19:49	24th
Abel Strock	Fr	23:12	54th