5/14/09
The Pojoaque Elkettes may have a formidable squad of star runners and jumpers, but one state prize has always eluded them — the team trophy.
They’ll get their chance Friday and Saturday in Albuquerque at the Class AAA-AAAAA state track meet.
“We’re determined to get that first-place trophy,” junior Dionna Montoya said. “Pojoaque’s never done that.”
It would be quite a feat. Pojoaque squeaked into second place at the District 2AAA track meet May 8 at Pojoaque, scoring 114 points to Robertson’s 125 points.
The Elkettes were just one point ahead of third-place St. Michaels.
Montoya won the long jump with her best effort this season — 16 feet, 4 inches. She added a first-place finish in the 800-meter run with a season-best time of 2:29.65. She is the defending state champion in both events.
Pojoaque sprinter Kimberly Babicke is the defending state champion in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. She won both of them at Pojoaque, taking the 100-meter with a time of 12.79 seconds and clocking a season-best 25.67 seconds in the 200-meter.
She will enter the state track meet as the favorite in both. Her 100-meter time of 12:07, clocked April 28 at Taos, and her 200-meter performance last week are the fastest state-qualifying times for those events.
Montoya anchored Pojoaque’s 800-meter relay to victory, overtaking a Robertson runner at the tape to win with a time of 1:49.67. Pojoaque sprinted away from the field in the 400-meter relay to a season’s best time of 50.46 seconds.
Babicke anchored the meet’s final event, the 1,600-meter relay, bringing home the baton in first place with a time of 4:19.35.
Just to show that speed is not Pojoaque’s only strength, junior Sophia Torres won the 3200-meter run (roughly two miles) in the state-qualifying time of 12:34.37 minutes. It was the first time that Torres has run the 3200-meter this season.
Perhaps the happiest runner on Pojoaque’s team was senior Raechele Lyon. In 2007 Lyon was on the record-setting Pojoaque 800-meter, 1600-meter and 1600-medley relay teams at the Class AAA state track meet. All three relays set school records that still stand.
Last year, however, Lyon was ineligible because of poor grades. She has come back strong and added an individual event to her relay repertoire.
Lyon trained for the 300-meter hurdles during the summer with Pojoaque coach Bob Koski, and she ran her first-ever 300 hurdles race April 18 in Santa Fe. Ten days later in Taos, she turned in a state-qualifying time of 50.3 seconds. She won the 300 hurdles May 8 in 50.4 seconds
“It means so much to me (to be running track again),” Lyon said. “This is the first individual event I’ve ever done.”