The Pojoaque boys cross country team added another first-place trophy to their case aftr winning the Rio Rancho Invitational Small School (Class A-AAA) meet Oct. 17 at Rio Rancho High School.
“We won pretty handily,” Pojoaque coach Alan Lockridge said. “I’m real pleased with that.”
The Elks scored 85 points and easily outdistanced the closest Class AAA school, Zuni, which finished fifth with 162 points. Jemez Valley, Peñasco and Pecos, all of Class A-AA, finished second, third and fourth, respectively. There were 21 schools represented at the meet.
The Elks were led by James Viarreal, who finished eighth with a time of 16:31, just 14 seconds ahead of teammate Daniel Santistevan, who was 12th. Sam Roybal was 14th, Dominic Martinez 21st and Craig Roybal 33rd overall of the five runners who scored for Pojoaque. Sophomore Brandon Jaramillo, normally Pojoaque’s fifth fastest runner, sat out the Rio Rancho meet with sore knees.
“We’re trying to get him a little stronger,” Lockridge said.
It was the boys second team title in two weeks. Pojoaque won the Capital Invitational Oct. 10 in Santa Fe.
This meet also had added significance because Rio Rancho will be the site next month of the Class AAA state championships, a competition Pojoaque should be favored to win (see related story above).
Elkettes and ‘Devils
The Pojoaque Elkettes had one of their best overall performances of the season, finishing sixth in a 23-team field at the Rio Rancho Invistational. Pojoaque scored 206 points and finished fifth among Class AAA schools. Zuni took first with 100 points.
Sophia Torres led the way for the Elkettes, finishing third overall and first among Class AAA runners. For the first time this season, she was ahead of District 2AAA rival, Kate Norskog of St. Michaels. Norskog is the defending Class AAA state champion. Torres turned in a time of 19:20, while Norskog was fourth in 19:27. East Mountain’s Caroline Kaufmann finished first and Bosque School’s Madeline Carey was second.
The Española Valley Sundevils boys team finished 15th overall in the Big School (Class AAAA-AAAAA) meet. Derrick Martinez led Española, finishing 26th overall with a time of 16:37 in a field of 177 runners. Los Alamos’ Kyle Pittman took first and Albuquerque Academy won the boys team title. The Española girls team took 11th place in the 23-team field. Gabrielle Fresquez led Española, finishing 50th with a time of 20:41 for the Sundevils.