Out Like a Lion (Updated)

Albuquerque Invitational (Milne)

If you like track meets that go down to the last event, the APS Invitational at Milne was your kind of day. Volcano Vista narrowly missed toppling the Rio Rancho boys and even more narrowly missed toppling the St. Pius X girls on Saturday. Going into the 4x400, the meet's outcome was in doubt in both cases, but VV couldn't gain enough points on the leaders in the 4x400 to invert the order of finish. 

The St Pius X girls got points in Sam's Club kind of quantities from Marissa Nathe in the 800 (2:25.24) and 1600 (5:25.04), and from Sara Weber in the discus (106-5) and javelin (112-0) to kick-start their triumph.

For Rio Rancho, the points came in usual places, like Alex Oluyitan in the shot (53-11), the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, and Connor Brown in the high jump (6-4).

Mostly, however, both the points and the event winners were very evenly spread amongst the teams.

Jackson Thomas's 4:26.64 put him in a very nice position in the statewide 1600 meter rankings, while the Del Norte girls' SMR16 time of 4:26.96 guarantees them a seat at the table in May.

Albuquerque Invitational (Wilson)

Still waiting on a complete set of results for this meet, but nobody's doubting who went away the winner of this one. That honor would belong to the Cleveland Storm. But, before Cleveland took home their trophies, everyone from the big schools got a trackful of Krista Armstead. The speedy Sandia Prep star ran away with the 400 in 57.59. I fully expect she participated in some other events as well, but the gaps in the results loom large.

What we do know is that a bunch of AA and LA boys slipped into the state meet in the 3200, Jacqueline Katzman of the Bosque School blasted a nice 1600 (but not quite as nice as she ran the week before in Arizona), La Cueva's Kaylin Martin dominated the 100 hurdles according to custom, Chase Ealey's shot puts continue to boggle the mind, and Cleveland has a bunch of weapons.

One weapon on display for the Storm this week was hurdler Reece White. White swept both hurdle events, including beating teammate Cheyne Dorsey in the 110s. Luis Martinez dominated the 1600 in 4:23.31, in his absence teammate Aaron Flores won the 3200 easily in 9:56 and change, and Sara Hattis won the high jump at 5-4. La Cueva put up a good stand, winning several events, but didn't have the firepower on Saturday to turn back the storm.

That said, the point in the season that really matters is still six weeks out. 

Canutillo Relays

You could find a lot of Las Cruces in Texas this weekend, and this is where they were. Best marks turned in included two by Santa Teresa's Britani Gonzales (400-1:01.39 and 800-2:24.97),  a 12:03/12:06 finish in the 3200 by Santa Teresa's Regina Marquez and Joanna Miranda, a 49.72/50.12 by Kyton Jurney (Mayfield) and Ricky Milks (Onate) in the 400, and a 15.41 from Mayfield's Rigo Moreno in the 110 Hurdles final.

Carrizozo Grizzly Relays

The Melrose girls put on a show. Six weeks out from state, they may be ready for prime time. If you're 1A and don't know about Cara and Caley Barnard, you will soon enough. The both high jumped 5-2, they long jumped 16-2 and 15-2, Caley triple jumped 32-11.5, and Cara ran the 200 in 28.41. The opposition melted, though Magdalena did make a good run of it before falling.

On the boys' side Mescalero's Godfrey Cordova had a nice all-around kind of day, winning the 200 in 24.54, the 400 in 55.53, finishing third in the long jump at 18-11, and winning the javelin with a nice toss of 154-6. Speaking of nice day's, Taylor Huey of Corona had one as well. Ms. Huey won the 100 in 12.87, the 200 in 27.04, and the high jump on misses at 5-2.

Golden Spike Classic

The one was a mid-week kind of affair for the Santa Fe schools. If you'd been there, you would have seen Santa Fe's Josh Roybal run 11.16 and 22.51. You'd have seen Jeff Sward of Santa Fe win the pole vault, 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, and finish second in the long jump. By now, you probably have a pretty good idea which team won the boys' division. And, if you extrapolated from that that they likely won the girls' division, too, you'd be right about that as well. Where I come from they call it domination.

Mike Castillo Invitational

There is a meet in southwest New Mexico most every weekend. The location changes, but the outcome doesn't much. Silver, the local 3A power, and Lordsburg, the local 2A power, dominate. Everyone goes home and they do it again the next weekend. Both of these teams are very good for their size of school and it should be fun to see how they do when the state meets roll around. 

Silver's Michelle Allen now has her 400 time down to 1:02.80, and her pole vault steady at 9-0. Her javelin was a little shorter this week, but we're not figuring that's a trend. Shelby Marra won the high jump at 5-1. Ishmael Jacquez is dropping his 400 times into the range that will make him a serious state contender. Silver has three guys at 2:10 or better in the 800. The Silver relays, both boys and girls, are nudging their times down. The throws are in capable hands with Molina, Reese and Trewen. This looks like about as complete of a team as you're going to see in 3A. There's good reason for the optimism in Silver City.

Lordsburg's boys likewise show no signs of faltering. Wendell Hayes once again laid claim to the 100 and 200. Kenny Evans as the 300 hurdles, pole vault, and triple jump figured out--though he has a little trouble now and then with the Cliff triple jump troupe.

Jim Love Invitational

We only have boys results from this one, but boys results are better than none, particularly where these are the first results of any stripe or color this year for some of the schools involved.

Texico's Colton Hollis ran a nice 2:02.74 800 and 4:46.70 1600. Those marks should put him in good 2A standing. Portales's Colin McAfee won both the 110 and 300 hurdles, but his 16.17 in the 110s probably warrants the greater attention. E. J. Stock of Lovington got a 13-6 clearance in the pole vault. Among 3A vaulters, that's going to stand as a very nice mark. There were also two very good throws marks posted at this meet. For those who can remember back to the 80s and early 90s, Bo Jackson knows discus, too. The Lovington junior of the famous name threw 144-7. Even nicer was the 171-5 that Texico's Jesus Rivera pitched the javelin.

Ron Singleton Invitational

If the meet name is not transparent to you, this one was held in Carlsbad and drew the heavy hitters from southeastern New Mexico. And there were several big marks posted.

The Carlsbad javelin twosome of Kendall Munoz and Britni Jo Smith were back at it--as closely paired as ever. Munoz threw 134-8; Smith threw 133-8. So that you don't have to go run back and check, those are the two best girls' javelin throws in the state at the moment, at least from meet results I've received (if you know of a better one, please forward those meet results ahead). 

While on the subject of Carlsbad, the 10.41 100 by Eric Galindo is worth noting. Reading between the lines of the results, it would appear this mean did not use fully automatic timing, but even when you allow for the round-up-to-the-next-tenth-and-add-0.24, it's still a very nice 100 time. Galindo and Ricky Milks will have to meet soon to satisfy a little brewing curiousity. For good measure, Galindo added a 22.21 200 later in the day.

Hobbs had a few nice performances on the day as well. Chief among those was a 22-11.75 by long jumper Isaiah Lintz. Oh, for a wind reading on that one! Let's hope he gets to jump somewhere soon with a wind gauge and the same pop in his legs. Like Galindo, Lintz was into validation on Saturday. A 45-0.0 in the triple jump counts as validation.

Hobbs also has a nifty freshman phenom by the name of Alexis Wright. Wright won the girls triple jump at 36-0.0, the high jump at 5-0, and the long jump at 17-2.5. Tigger has nothing on this girl.

Finally, Loving's Cody Ogden launched the javelin 179-3. It was a good day for casting a wary eye to the sky for stray javelins at Carlsbad High School.