Closing in on Final Chances

Alamogordo Qualifier

Cleveland's girls headed south for the weekend and conquered a little territory while they were out. For the girls, it was Alamogordo running well ahead of the rest of the crowd.

We picked up a couple of new names to pay attention to in the girls throws in Jaden Ortiz of Sandia and Nikki Terera of Onate. Clovis's Jenna Sievers going 5-6 in the high jump is big news, but, unfortunately, happened on a weekend when that didn't end up as the highest clearance in the state.

Cleveland's Malia Gonzales won both the 3200 and 1600, and both with the kind of times that should keep her is tall cotton at state.

The 5A boys 300 hurdles is shaping up to be an outstanding event. Rigo Moreno and Mac Shoaf should keep the southern reaches of the state well represented in this showdown.

Ike Shoaf and Rolando Fernandez gave the Alamogordo Tigers two guys under 2-flat in the 800. That could be a tough act to counter at state.

Ricky Milks took the 100, as expected, and Chris Kline took the 400, as expected. When it come to the 200 showdown between the two, however, Milks won by about a half second. There aren't many substittutes for raw speed.

Artesia Invitational

If you have a solid team in the southeastern part of the state, this was the place to be last weekend. And a handful of teams from the Albuquerque area ventrued down as well to add to the interest factor. 

Kendall Munoz, Britni Jo Smith, and Jonathan Millar continue to dominate their respective distance events, no matter where they compete.

If LaNay Crenshaw can win the sprint events at a meet like this, it's a safe bet she's going to be tough to beat in another week-and-a-half in Albuquerque. Fort Sumner got another inspired performance at this meet from Skylar McMath, who won the boys 800 in 1:58.70.

From the smaller school perspective, it's also worth noting that Socorro's Zoe Howell won the 400 in 59.48.

The 2:19.46 posted by Amber Saiz in the 800 should serve notice to a few aspiring 5A 800 types that Ms. Saiz is among those who must be counted as favorites in the two-lapper.

Cimarron Ram Relays

Results from the northeastern quadrant of the state have been difficult to come by this spring, so I'm happy to have these to look at. Like almost all meets in New Mexico that have retained "Relays" in their name, this one isn't really a relays meet. It's a conventional, try-to-post-a-great-mark-in-a-standard-event-and-qualify-for-state meet. 

Clayton, a large school relative to most of the other schools participating in the meet, dominated the team scoring. Interesting individual marks were spread all around, however.

Questa's Tyree Torrence ran a nice 11.09 to win the 100. While Torrence will get another look under the FAT system at state, his time was clearly a superior mark in this meet and marks him as someone

Clayton's Kassie Geary dominated the girls 100 and 200. That and the 34-11 shot put by Adrienne Trujillo go a long way toward accounting for Clayton's dominance in the girls' scoring.

Cobre Invitational

The time has almost come. One more meet to put under their belts, and all the teams from southwest New Mexico finally get to compete against someone else. 

Familiarity of competition aside, the athletes from this region are still posting some remarkable performances. 

2A Lordsburg figures to be taking some solid athletes in Rachelle Gomez, Selina Munoz, Wendell Hayes, Joseph Jackson, and Kenny Evans to state. Evans, however, was conspicuously absent from the results from the Cobre Invitational.

1A Cliff will be capably represent by a raft of triple jumpers, Colton Clark, Micah Spurgeon, and Isabella Reed.

3A Silver has a list of state contenders too lengthy to enumerate here. But it seems that every week Silver turns up a new find. The rest of the 3A competition should be relieved that the season, and therefore the window for Silver to come up with new finds, is almost over. Silver is definitely looking the team to beat in 3A. A lot can happen in 10 days, but Silver has more ways to hurt you than any of the other 3A boys teams. At this point, Silver has at least one qualifier in every state event except the long jump and triple jump. 

While the Silver girls won't go into the state meet as anything like paupers, they will not wear the mantle of favorites.

The results of this meet suggest that some of the top teams may have been holding back a few of their cards, but exceptional performances were turned in by Silver's Dominic Brown in the 200, Hatch's Tomas Cisneros in the 400, Silver's Andrew Little in the 110 hurdles, and the Lordsburg 4x100 squad (43.62 is a good mark regardless of classification, but an exceptional mark for 2A)

Richard Harper Invitational

See on-site coverage in the article linked below...