It was a grand way to finish, running through a tunnel of outstretched arms formed by the trophy-winning teams May 16 at the Class AAA-AAAAA state track and field meet in Albuquerque. When it came time for the Pojoaque Elkettes to take their turn through the tunnel, they pranced to the awards podium celebrating the first team track medal in school history.
Pojoaque had scored 75 points to easily outdistance second-place Robertson, who scored 55 points. Ruidoso took third with 49 points.
The Elkettes did it with just nine girls. All of them contributed points to the championship effort.
“Everybody contributes and everybody matters,” Pojoaque coach Bob Koski said. “This is a great collection of athletes.”
Pojoaque’s Kimberly Babicke was high point scorer in Class AAA with 24 points, but the team trophy meant more.
“You get to share it with everyone.” she said.
Babicke started the march to the title May 15, winning the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 10.75 inches. She barely edged out teammate Dionna Montoya, the defending state champion, who went 16 feet, 10 inches on her effort. Pojoaque scored 12 points in the event.
With Pojoaque’s Jackie Bartleson adding two points with a fifth-place finish in the shot put, the Elkettes finished the first day with 14 points, right where Koski had thought they would be.
Pojoaque began the running events May 16 by sprinting across the finish line in first place in the 400-meter relay with Babicke running the anchor leg after teammates Raechele Lyon, Chelsea Hoffman and Angela Lopez had carried the baton.
Babicke wore a frown, briefly, after being upset in the 100-meter run by Sandia Prep’s Krista Armstead. But the smile returned to her face in her next race, when she held off Armstead to win the 200-meter dash.
“I could feel her behind me,” Babicke said.
In between Babicke’s sprints, Montoya successfully defended her title in the 800-meter run and lost to a familiar foe in the 400-meter run.
Montoya overtook St. Michaels’ Kate Norskog to win the 800-meter with a time of 2:24.13, a season’s best.
“I stayed with (Norskog) and didn’t let her separate,” Montoya said. “When she picked it up, I went with her, and at the 150-yard mark I started giving it my all.”
Montoya was leading most of the way in the 400-meter run, but Ruidoso’s Amber Gardner caught Montoya at the tape, edging her out by six thousandths of a second. Gardner had also beaten Montoya a year ago in the finals of the 400.
“I just didn’t see her coming,” Montoya said.
The Elkettes finished third in the 800-meter relay and fourth in the 1600-medley relay thanks to a gutsy 800-meter anchor leg by team captain Sophia Torres, a junior. Torres had just completed a hard run in the 1600-meter run, finishing fifth in that event.
Torres missed her chance at an individual medal May 15 during the 3200-meter finals, when she dragged herself from the track in pain and was unable to finish the race.
“We worked on her all night — 12 to 16 hours,” Koski said.
According to Koski, tendons and nerves in Torres’ knee were sending shooting pains from her knee to her femur.
But Torres recovered to add her contribution to the team score.
“It’s a privilege (to be a member of this team),” Torres said.
The Elkettes had already wrapped up the team title by the start of the meet’s final event, the 1600-meter relay. The Elkettes finished the day as they had begun it, with Kimberly Babicke running the anchor leg and winning the event for Pojoaque.
She took the baton from her younger sister Amanda Babicke, an eighth grader, who had received the baton from Montoya.
Leading off that relay and finishing her career as a state champion was senior Raechele Lyon, who had raced to a second-place finish in the 300-hurdles earlier that day. Lyon was ineligible to run track last season after participating her sophomore year.
There were tears in her eyes.
“I’m crying,” she said. “It’s incredible.”