Indoor is usually thought of as a tuning-up period for the explosive events, but it was the distance folks who stole the show at the Convention Center on Saturday night.
Easily the best girls event of the evening, at least so far as the New Mexico talent base was concerned, came in the 1600 where Regina Marquez pulled away for a eight-second win over Kelli Reagan. While the finish wasn't all that close, the 5:25 and 5:33 times figure as sturdy efforts for January.
This writer has something yet to learn about the school identities of Lisa Valle, who finished a strong third in both the 800 and 1600, and Arianna Eddings, who left the convention center with wins in both the 60 and 200.
For the boys, the story developed along very similar lines. Lots of entries in the running events, but also few well-known names.
One name that is very well known is that of Mustafa Mudada. Mudada did his thing in winning the 400 by almost a full second in 52.47.
St. Pius's Chris Graham ran a strong third, to two out-of-state entries, in the 800. Graham's 2:02.39 finish gives him the aura of a guy who should be well below 2-flat when May rolls around.
Andres Franco and Mckenz Leekya ran solidly in the 1600 but, like Graham, fell in behind the Texas/Colorado combo of Brian Barraza and Joe Maloney.
Beau Clafton's 7.10 effort to win the 60 places him high on the list of 4A sprint talent for this spring.
The Joseph Kloeppel who won the high jump at 6-8 isn't showing up anywhere on my radar screen of known New Mexico high school athletes. He's due to make a big impact starting in March if he is a New Mexico high schooler.
The action resumes next Saturday evening, same time same place, at the New Mexico Open meet.