Talented and tested Mesa Vista sophomore Ezequiel “Zeke” Nevarez found himself being chased by a dust devil and a Sundevil at the Del Valdez Memorial Invitational Cross Country meet Aug. 29 at Española Valley High School.
Nevarez and Sundevil Elijah Martinez traded the lead up and over the hilly three-lap course in and around the school’s baseball and football fields.
“It’s a tough course,” Nevarez said of this initial race of 2024. “We’ve been training since July and it was a good start today.”
He fractured his left ankle during the summer of 2023, but still recovered well enough to finish 18th in the New Mexico Activities Association Class 1-2A cross-country final last November.
The start of which Nevarez speaks is the step-by-step process toward a Class 1-2A cross country state championship in November, certainly a realistic goal after finishing fourth in Class 1-2A last season.
Trojan coach Ben Sandoval specifically sought the spot to coach the runners from Ojo Caliente.
“I told (Nevarez) at a basketball game against Coronado (last Winter) that I wanted to come coach him and these guys,” Sandoval said of Nevarez, who also finished second in the Class 2A 3200-meter race in the May 2024 State Track and Field meet. “This guy is a tough kid. Whether it’s through his words or his actions, (Nevarez) is the reason for the (running) culture at Mesa Vista. We have a young team, but we have experience.”
Nevarez has some very talented teammates. The Trojans had four of the top six finishers at The Del Valdez Invitational and the journey to a possible state championship one hill at a time.
After Nevarez won the boys varsity event in 18 minutes, 3.75 seconds. Freshman Anthony Crim finished third at 18:31.84, sophomore Andres Valdez took fourth place in 18:35.18. Española Valley’s Elijah Martinez finished fifth in 18:37.06 after staying on Nevarez’s shoulder for most of the race, while Jason Gallegos was the final scorer for Mesa Vista.
On the girls’ side, Moriarty’s Carmen Dorsey-Spitz set a school record for the 5-kilometer distance and won the girls’ varsity race in 18:54. Española Valley’s Hailey Renteria finished second, but the best team performance came from McCurdy School.
Though The Lady Bobcats only had four varsity runners as defending 3200-meter Class 2A state meet champion, sophomore Marisol Serna was out with illness, McCurdy still had runners finish fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth.
Senior Aubrey Cordova finished fourth in 22:27, junior Kaylee Martinez finished sixth in 23:18, while sophomores Avery Knight and Isabella Archuleta ran seventh and eighth in 23:25 and 23:39, respectively.
McCurdy co-head coach Carlos Martinez was elated with the Bobcats’ season-opening effort.
“I’m very, very happy with the way all runners ran,” he said. “Overall, there were some jitters at the start, but we had a great day.