Spring Break Losing Its Grip

Laura Wendelberger and Chase Ealey have Los Alamos edging toward the driver's seat for 4A girls so far this spring. Photos by Blake Wood.

 

As spring break starts to wind down across New Mexico, the track and field action figures to start picking up. We're seeing some of that already this weekend. And most of this weekend's action seems to be clustered in the central portion of the state.

The Albuquerque schools will be busy at Buddy Robertson I and Buddy Robertson II at APS's Milne and Wilson Stadiums.

Moving out from the Duke City a little, you have the Valencia Relays and the Laguna Acoma Invitational. Most of western New Mexico, or at least most of western New Mexico that is competing this week, will be converging on Laguna Acoma.

Up in Los Alamos, the Hilltoppers will be hosting the Los Alamos Classic. Also in the northern part of the state are the West Las Vegas and Capitol Jaguar Invitationals. Despite the higher elevations at these schools, temperatues should be quite pleasant this weekend at both meets, maybe even a little more so than at the lower elevations.

Out east, and mostly southeast, Hagerman hosts the Alfalfa Relays with most of the same schools that were at the Dexter Demon Relays last weekend. Meanwhile, Hobbs hosts the bigger schools at the Gene Wells Relays on Friday.

Hobbs has the look of a good program, so we're anxious to see the results coming out of their home meet on Friday, the Gene Wells Relays. Perhaps no Hobbs mark has stirred as much interest this spring as the 5:04 posted by Andrea Wittman in the 1600. That more or less gives her a stranglehold on the state 1600 meter rankings, regardless of classification. Will she take aim at improving that mark or try to establish similar territory in other distance events?

Another athlete enjoying a stranglehold on the rankings is Chase Ealey of Los Alamos, mostly in the shot put, but, to some degree, in the 100 meters as well. Ealey gets to put the show on for the home crowd this weekend.

Still focusing on the Los Alamos Classic, another interesting aspect of the Los Alamos meet is the scheduled appearance of Aztec. If Aztec isn't depleted by spring break absences, we could get a very nice look at the relative strength of these two 4A powers this weekend.

Results for all of this weekend's meet will be posted here as soon as they become available. Keep checking in to see how teams around the state fared. If you get a great photo or two of the action you'd like to share, please feel welcome to send it along to me at the e-mail address in the lower left corner of this page.