Meet Erin Archibeck. More than a few heads turned to watch her go by later this fall. Photo by Alan Versaw.
When Nick Hill, Sean Reardon, Orion Staples, Zak Kennison, Brandon Levi, Blaise Mariner, Jenna Thurman, and Jennifer Mooday all graduate, that leaves a lot of possibilities open for next year's top individual runners in 4A.
And, though Los Alamos leads the list of graduates, they're also pretty high on the list of returners.
Girls
I'm going to make an assumption here than since I have no results for Arena Lewis going back before the fall, 2011, season that she is at least a freshman but not graduating this spring. As such, she should be back next year.
She didn't run at state this year. I have an unverified report that she missed a turn on the regional race and, owing to that, missed what would otherwise have been an easy qualification for state. We'll assume that next year will be a better regional experience for her. Thus, she figures as one of the top--and perhaps the top--candidate to replace Jenna Thurman as the 2013 4A state champion.
That's not to say, however, that she's a shoo-in. There are several more candidates.
A pair of sisters from Albuquerque Academy, Claire and Erin Archibeck, figure into candidate status as well. Interestingly, Erin ran behind Claire while both were healthy, but appears to have eclipsed Claire's times when Claire was sidelined by an injury. If so, it wouldn't be the first time that a young runner discovered some new territory in her potential when a perceived obstacle was removed from the scene. In any case, it's probably a good idea the give both Archibeck's their due, then sit back and see what happens next fall (or maybe even this spring!).
If you take NXR-SW times into consideration, we all better start thinking of Madison Foley of Los Alamos as a bona fide contender as well. 18:30 kind of gives you something to think about. Jordan Parker and Mikayla Pulliam both ran sub 19:30 for Los Alamos this fall as well.
The St. Pius duo of Julie Gianinni and Kelli Reagan haunts that kind of territory as well. Britani Gonzalez? Yup, better think about her, too.