State Championship Results I Photos I Video I5A Girls Recap

A team that truly saved their best performance for last, Volcano Vista blew the barn doors off to claim their first 5A state title in program history. The Hawks landed 59 points to overcome their district rivals in Rio Rancho and Sue Cleveland. It did not take long to realize they had completed the task set forth at the beginning of the season once junior Jude Lucero had crossed the finish line in 17th history was made. They ran as expected, Aiden Davis who finished 4th was the team only all-state performer but they continued to be the tightly packed team that knows how to go under a minute among their 1-5 scorers that had made all the difference when taking down the Storm coming off a four straight championship streak. Rio Rancho was in a contest of their own to hold on to the state runner-up position after constant back and forth on the leaderboards with Cleveland as the second half of runners sprinted to the finish line. The rams would hold on for 93 points to the Storm's 98 points as Organ Mountain would come in at 4th with 123 points and Sandia landed 5th at 143 points.

The 5A's most consistent runner, Sandia's Steven West capture his first state title in 16:00 after launching out of the starting line and maintaining his lead throughout the race. Rio Rancho senior Dawson Gunn came through in 16:13 for his best cross country performance as the state runner-up. Organ Mountain's Brett Bybee led the Knights to 5th off his 3rd place performance in a time of 16:20. Aiden Davis returned to the cross country championships after missing out on last season and improved his place to 4th as a huge catalyst to the Hawks state championship win.  Tucker Scott was not too far off from his teammate, as he landed a 5th place finish in 16:40. Other all-state performers included Celso Garcia Alamogordo (6th), Bahozhoni Church Albuquerque (7th), Naseem Dhaouadi Eldorado (8th), Caden Nunn Cleveland(9th), and Cody Toya Cleveland(10th).

5A Boys Results