#14 Pecos Panthers

As 2022 kicks off it will appear that the Pecos Victory streak should continue as they land the #14 spot on our New Mexico Boys Cross Country Countdown. They put on a dominant performance in the 2021 state A/2A championship race that saw them land three runners in the top ten en route to a 50-point victory.  Two of those all-state performers return for the Panthers including Elijah Lujan (6th in 2021), and Aidan Holton (7th in 2021) as they seek to guide their squad to rare back-to-back state titles.  The rest of the returning state team includes Justin Muller (12th in 2021), Andres Archuleta (34th in 2021), and Israel Villegas (39th in 2021). That much production coming back for Pecos should be exciting for any team in the state but will it be enough to hold off an emerging Oak Grove that finished runner-up in 2021 with 105 points? Oak Grove who boasted better personal bests than Pecos last season proved unable to meet the challenge of Pecos front runners that put it away early on but might a pair of graduations closen the gap between the schools. For a program that has seen plenty of success in the past decade of competition, early on it looks like Pecos is a favorite to be hoisting their fifth state championship trophy in the past eight years.  

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