The McCurdy Charter School girls cross country team is starting to build a rhythm along with new head coach Cecilia Brown
The group has placed in each of the first three meets they have competed in, opening the season with a second-place finish in Dulce Aug. 25 and a third-place result in Mora Sept. 1, before the girls took fourth Sept. 8 at the Peñasco High School Invite.
“We started off the season second in Dulce and third in Mora, which was without our top two runners,” Brown said. “Emma (Lovato) wasn’t there and Jayme (Bustos) wasn’t there. Today they ran well, you know, I was happy to have three runners finish inside the top 20, that’s awesome. I’m really proud of them. They ran well, of course.”
Jeneva Serrano finished right at the 20th spot in 25 minutes, 21 seconds, while Lovato landed in 13th (23:59) and Bustos set a personal record of 23:04 to finish in seventh place, two spots outside of medals rewarded to the top five runners.
“I was surprised to do that good,” Bustos — who played later that night for the McCurdy volleyball team against Coronado High School — said. “That’s probably the best I’ve ever done and is my PR. I’ve never ran at a meet this big before.”
The Invite featured a total of 50 girl runners from 10 schools who had to task in enduring the steep hills of the course located just to the northeast of Peñasco High School.
“It’s a tough, tough course,” Brown said. “The hills on the backside are really, really tough, but we powered through and were able to hold our places, so they did well on the hills. I really think it’s one of the toughest courses we run.”
“It’s mountain running, which is never easy,” first-year Mesa Vista High School head coach Raymond Chavez added.
Chavez is just under a month into his first-ever coaching job after retiring from the New Mexico National Guard. He was faced with the challenge of gathering enough runners to compete on both the boys and girls side, but the boys have come together quickly.
They finished third at Peñasco out of five eligible teams, edging out Santa Fe Prep, 125+6, as their sixth runner Mark Trujillo’s time of 23:59 won the tiebreaker.
Damian Trujillo followed up on his team-leading performance last week in Albuquerque at the University Of New Mexico Lobo Invitational by finishing seventh-overall in 18:53.
The girls team has been a harder sell for Chavez, who only traveled with two runners in Anna Peña and Alyssa Cervantes, as group leader and senior Aubrianna Griego took the week off to stay within state regulations to remain eligible for the state meet in November.
“I hope to get some more girls and at least field a full team,” Chavez said. “But, the boys are starting to come along well. They all improved on their times from last week and we’re adding more kids and I think they’re starting to see what it’s like to be a part of this so they want to come out.”
Española Valley was the final of three local teams from Rio Arriba County to compete.
The Lady Sundevils only fielded three runners last week but are one step closer to forming a complete team as Alyssa Rodriguez joined Megan Rael, Jayden Archuleta and Alysia Martinez in Peñasco.
Archuleta is starting to prove herself as the leader of the pack, finishing first out of all the Lady Sundevils in the first three competitions. She finished 14th overall at Peñasco in 24:11.
The Española boys finished fifth out of five full teams with a total of 164, which was 39 points behind fourth place Santa Fe Prep (125). Like Archuleta for the girls, Terrance Sanchez has been the workhorse for the boys. He finished in 19:39, earning 18th overall. The next best Sundevil was Zac Salazar, who finished in 34th place (21:06).
The McCurdy boys were lead by the 32nd-place finish of Andres Davis-Martinez (20:53).
Girls team results
1. Peñasco, 36
2. Santa Fe Prep, 95
3. Moriarty, 105
4. McCurdy, 108
5. Cuba, 150
Boys team results
1. Cuba, 54
2. Moriarty, 64
3. Mesa Vista, 125+53 (sixth man)
4. Santa Fe Prep, 125
5. Española Valley, 164