New Mexico Week in Review: October 7 - 14

Los Lunas David Allen XC Invitational

If your school is anywhere near the geographic center of the state but you don't qualify as "Albuquerque Metro," you probably ended up here. And, if you did, you got more than an eyeful of Los Alamos green and gold. Like a lot of other folks, you may be shaking your head, wondering how anyone will be left standing after Los Alamos runs through the field.

For the boys, Los Alamos had their team scoring done at sixth place when Orion Staples crossed in 17:09. It was pretty much the same story when Mikayla Pulliam crossed in sixth at 20:46 for the girls race.

Only Rachel Fleddermann of Sandia Prep and Alexander Taylor of Gallup stood in the way of perfect scores. Second place in the team tallies went to Belen (boys) and SFIS (girls). 

Does Los Alamos have depth, too? You may want to check out the JV race results. Then again, you might not. Could Los Alamos place two teams in the top five at state? This year, probably so. A lot of eyes would figure to be watching Los Alamos at the Rio Rancho Jamboree, but word I had from earlier this fall was that the Hilltoppers would be bypassing the Jamboree.

Metro Championships

This meet settled a lot of things--for the span of a week, anyway. In another week, they pretty much all get back together again at Rio Rancho HS and do it again. Only this time, there will be a lot more teams with them on the starting line.

Eldorado's girls continue the march through their season without slip-ups. Neither Albuquerque Academy or St. Pius X could keep it close. Cleveland's boys look stronger every week. An AA team that was within four points two weeks ago was in excess of 20 back this time.

Hope Christian was the only small school team to take on the assembled 4A and 5A powers at this one. The Huskies hung in well, finishing 10th in both team tallies. 

NMMI Invitational

Not all of SE New Mexico was there, but a big chunk was. Last time we checked in with Brittany Collins, the Clovis star was winning races. She won again this weekend with a 20:25. Teammate Chase Beausoleil gave the visitors in purple a matched set, winning the boys race in 17-flat. 

Team scoring? Well, that fell to Clovis as well, though Ruidoso came within a mere point of winning the boys team title. 

Onate XC Invitational

Something happened here that hasn't happened all season. Meghan Aguilera took a defeat at the hands of New Mexico competition. After weeks of watching the gap get smaller and smaller, Brittani Gonzalez took the win this time with a sizzling 18:48. Teammate Regina Marquez went 19:17 for second. Aguilera took third in 19:27. 

With Kristian Gonzalez topping Zac Rhodes by six second, Santa Teresa was able to nail down both individual titles.

Zuni Patason Amesoli Invitational

It was a lengthy list of teams gathering for this one. That fact added to the difficulty of the course means the results here likely tell us something.

But, the first thing they tell us is something we already knew--nobody is keeping pace with Laguna-Acoma, no matter what the course. Patrick Keyope and Jacob Riley go 3-4 to get things started for the Hawks, and they were all done scoring by place 23. Shiprock ran second, but with more than double the score of L-A.

The second thing the results tell us is also something we already knew--if someone is going to beat Navajo Prep, it isn't likely to be one of the teams they've been beating every week of the invitational season.

It's starting to sound a lot like a broken record (if anyone understands that phrase any longer), but Laguna-Acoma and Navajo Prep just keep winning. As long as they stay healthy, don't expect much about that to change.

East Mountain got nice runs out of Eric Eridon and Addison Rauch.