In the 3A girls, it looks to be the age-old question of quality versus quantity.
If you've been following this series at all to this point, you already know the disclaimers. I would repeat them at the risk of alienating the audience. So, let's talk a little more about the teams and individuals this time around.
Albuquerque is supposed to be home to the big schools in New Mexico. We give Albuquerque Academy a pass on that because, despite their size, they've competed like a big school for time out of memory. But, Albuquerque is also a big part of the story in small school 3A girls track and field. In fact, maybe even more so than in 5A track and field.
It mostly comes down to two teams, Hope Christian and Sandia Prep. And, to some extent, between these two schools, it's a matter of quality vs. quantity.
Sandia's strong suit is quality. There may not be a better female track and field athlete in the state than Krista Armstead right now. And there isn't a better female distance runner in 3A right now than Rachel Fleddermann. Armstead and Fleddermann don't make up the entire team, but it's tough to ignore the kind of impact these two make when they step on the track. It's not a done deal by any means, but it's also not unthinkable that, between the two, they bring home seven individual event titles from the state meet.
Hope Christian probably doesn't have anyone who can win as many individual titles as Armstead and Fleddermann, but they very definitely have quantity on their side. Some people call it depth. Whatever you call it, the Huskies have it.
For starters, that will likely play out as an advantage in relays for the girls in green and gold. And, if that happens again, Hope looks like a strong contender to repeat for a state title this spring. Anna Duvall is the do-everything entry in the Hope Christian roster. If she doesn't yet have multi events on her mind at some point in the future, she should. For now, though, she's going to need to find the right way to get it down to five events at the state meet. Erika Nelson and Kearney Moss were big-time contributors last spring and will look to reprise those roles this spring. This is one small-school program that can hang with the bigger schools.
Elsewhere, Silver and Lovington are the programs with the biggest potential. Silver has potential state titleists in Jacquelyn Dunnavan, Michelle Allen, and Shelby Marra. Lovington has potential individual title winners in Karen Esparza and Selena Ornelas and figures to dominate the 3A girls throws this spring.
To take a closer look at the 2011 rankings from which the scores of this virtual meet were drawn, here's what you do:
1. Click on Stats from the main red navigation bar above.
2. Click on High School Girls from the Outdoor T & F selection area.
3. Set the year to '11, Returners? to Yes, and select NM 3A from the League dropdown.
That will take you to the leaderboard for returning track and field athletes from 2011. Peruse the events at your leisure.
2011 NM HS F Outdoor Track Team Scores (Returners Only)
Calculated as of February 20, 2012
These rankings were calculated by scoring the rankings as a meet. We took the individual rankings and scored them as a normal meet: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.
Athletes whose graduation years are unknown were left out of the list.
| 1. | Hope Christian High School | 108 |
| Anna Duvall (100H 8 + 300H 5 + 800m 3 + HJ 5 + J 5 + LJ 3 + PV 8 + S 8 = 45) | ||
| Cierrah Kassetas (D 6 = 6) | ||
| Emily Nicolaysen (400m 5 + TJ 6 = 11) | ||
| Erika Nelson (400m 6 + 800m 10 = 16) | ||
| Jenae Christians (100H 6 + 300H 6 = 12) | ||
| Kearney Moss (LJ 8 + TJ 10 = 18) | ||
| 2. | Sandia Prep High School | 77 |
| Krista Armstead (100m 10 + 100H 10 + 200m 10 + 300H 10 = 40) | ||
| Rachel Fleddermann (1600m 10 + 3200m 10 + 800m 8 = 28) | ||
| Shannon Glass-smythe (HJ 5 + TJ 4 = 9) | ||
| 3. | Silver High School | 58 |
| Angelica Vega (1600m 3 + 3200m 6 = 9) | ||
| Gisella Dunnavan (LJ 2 = 2) | ||
| Jacquelyn Dunnavan (100H 5 + 300H 2 + TJ 8 = 15) | ||
| Michelle Allen (400m 4 + J 8 + PV 10 = 22) | ||
| Shelby Marra (HJ 10 = 10) | ||
| 4. | Lovington High School | 46 |
| Adriana Gonzalez (D 5 = 5) | ||
| Annalicia Vaughn (100m 4 = 4) | ||
| Cori Haley (HJ 3 = 3) | ||
| Karen Esparza (D 8 + S 10 = 18) | ||
| Karina Antillon (PV 6 = 6) | ||
| Selena Ornales (J 10 = 10) | ||
| 5. | Robertson High School | 42 |
| Abbey Bradley (LJ 6 = 6) | ||
| Caitlin Diefendorf (200m 5 = 5) | ||
| Elena Martinez (100m 2 = 2) | ||
| Joedy Quintana (300H 4 = 4) | ||
| Julia Hoogerhuis (300H 3 + HJ 2 = 5) | ||
| Karlene Montano (1600m 4 + 3200m 3 = 7) | ||
| Katie Houdek (HJ 5 = 5) | ||
| Kristen Montano (LJ 4 = 4) | ||
| Sabrina Romero (100H 4 = 4) | ||
| 6. | Socorro High School | 39 |
| Dayna Guerro (3200m 4 + 800m 6 = 10) | ||
| Dezirae Armijo (100m 5 + 400m 2 + LJ 5 = 12) | ||
| Nikki Mortenson (100H 3 = 3) | ||
| Zoe Howell (200m 6 + 400m 8 = 14) | ||
| 6. | Pojoaque Valley High School | 39 |
| Amanda Babicke (100m 8 + 200m 8 + 400m 10 + LJ 10 = 36) | ||
| Marissa Martinez (100m 3 = 3) | ||
| 8. | Ruidoso High School | 31 |
| Harley Bonnell (200m 4 + TJ 5 = 9) | ||
| Staci Mitchell (300H 8 + 400m 3 = 11) | ||
| Tylynn Smith (100H 2 + HJ 8 + LJ 1 = 11) | ||
| 8. | Shiprock High School | 31 |
| April King (D 1 = 1) | ||
| Chynna Benally (S 2.5 = 2.5) | ||
| Courtney Begay (D 3 + S 4 = 7) | ||
| Kailyn Begay (800m 2 + D 4 + S 2.5 = 8.5) | ||
| Marlena Peshlakai (200m 3 + TJ 2 = 5) | ||
| Shatoya Ayze (HJ 1 = 1) | ||
| Shund Yesslilth (1600m 2 + 800m 4 = 6) | ||
| 10. | Wingate High School | 28 |
| Karianne Jones (3200m 2 = 2) | ||
| Tanya Belone (1600m 8 + 3200m 8 = 16) | ||
| Telaina Henry (1600m 5 + 800m 5 = 10) | ||
| 11. | West Las Vegas High School | 25 |
| Cecilia Gutierrez (J 6 = 6) | ||
| Danielle Gurule (D 10 + S 5 = 15) | ||
| Desiree Gonzales (100m 1 = 1) | ||
| Michelle Tapia (TJ 3 = 3) | ||
| 12. | St. Michael's High School | 17 |
| Alexa Chavez (S 6 = 6) | ||
| Jordyn Romero (1600m 6 + 3200m 5 = 11) | ||
| 13. | Taos High School | 7 |
| Angelica Pacheco (100m 6 = 6) | ||
| Hannah Gunther (3200m 1 = 1) | ||
| 14. | Zuni High School | 6 |
| Ariel Sanchez (D 2 = 2) | ||
| Tahlia Natachu (100H 1 + 300H 1 = 2) | ||
| Tisha Zunie (200m 2 = 2) | ||
| 15. | Crownpoint High School | 5 |
| Mystri Jodie (400m 1 = 1) | ||
| Shondean Begay (J 4 = 4) | ||
| 16. | Cobre High School | 1 |
| Andrea Guttierez (200m 1 = 1) |