Week in Review: The Gift of Cooler Weather

Alamogordo Invitational

With each passing week, Meghan Aguilera validates her credentials as a legitimate 5A contender. This time, it was via a 36-second win over Santa Teresa's Britani Gonzalez. For a meet that didn't run all that fast overall, an 18:53 gets a few lifted eyebrows. Onate had a nice team effort for the win, but the times drop off dramatically after the first two girls finishers at this meet. 

For the boys, Michael Lucero of Silver goes straight onto our 3A watch list with his winning effort of 17:08 at this one. Onate, however, runs a very tight team pack for an easy win. It will be fun to see how Onate fares when they travel up north for a meet, but this Onate team looks very solid at this point. 

ATC Everybody Invitational

Despite some uncharacteristically cool and advers conditions for early September, they pulled this one off and it looks like a considerable success. Bosque School brought the Kelly sisters and that pretty much settled the top two girls places. Penasco, however, hung tough enough for the team title among girls. 

The story was much the same among the boys. Mora's Alonzo Chavez ran away from everyone to win in 16:39. Yet, despite getting good scoring support from teammates Julio Serna and Daniel Medina, Mora could not hold off a nice effort from Santa Fe Prep for the team title. It helps that SFP got a 2-3 from the duo of Jimmy Buchanan and Kyle Evaldson.

Winning times go down as meet records at this one but may have trouble surviving another year of competition if the weather plays out more according to usual patterns next year.

Cleveland XC Invitational

I have a hunch, along with Teo Cutter (see article linked below), that this one will rapidly turn into one of the bigger meets on the New Mexico scene. It started small enough next year, but demand can only grow for this one.

Mark down Arena Lewis of Belen at the top of your 4A watch list. It would appear that someone did her training over the summer. The spacing between Malia Gonzales, Elisa Woody, and Crissey Amberg figures to undergo a litte compaction over the course of the season. It's hard to imagine 40 seconds separating these three by the end of the season. And, Eldorado definitely looks like the real deal among 5A girls. The Eagles are flying in a tough formation these days and have excellent depth through #6.

The 1-2-3-5-7 posted by the Cleveland boys looked a lot more like the Cleveland team we saw last year than what they produced on opening weekend. 

The official meet results say 5K, but the course map and the times say 3.0 miles, so we stowed these meet results in the 3-mile bin.

Espanola XC Invitational

For the folks from the north-central part of the state that didn't travel to Alamosa to be part of the Joe Vigil Open, this meet was the place to be. Jereme Santistevan like his Pojoaque Valley teammates to a nine-point win over St. Michael's for the boys team title. Although Jordyn Romero won the individual team title for the St. Michael's girls, it was Horsemen's day to finish second as a team. Santa Fe Indian School prevailed over St. Michael's by eight points in the girls division. 

Loyd's Lake Classic Invitational

Without much in the way of meets to attend in their own corner of the state, and not wanting to make the trip to Alamosa, Piedra Vista did the sensible thing and went to Utah for a meet. And, it paid off for them in the form of a girls team title and a boys individual title. Running at substantial elevation, Harrison Fleming won the boys race in 17:30, while PV rode the performances of four freshmen and a junior to an easy girls team title.

Rehoboth XC Invitational

For a Rehoboth boys team that lost a ton to graduation, they looked pretty good at their home invitational. Only the larger schools of Miyamura and Gallup were able to displace Rehoboth in the standings. Gallup's Alexander Taylor edged Rehoboth's Tyrell Natewa, 17:24 to 17:25 for the individual title. And you all understand the nature of the course when interpreting the times.

Among the girls, Rehoboth took second by a narrow, three-point margin to Wingate. Since Rehoboth doesn't compete against Wingate at state, that has the look of a very nice result. Individual honors go to Tanaya Belone of Wingate in 21:03.