The Española Valley boys and girls cross country teams got to experience night running last week during the Mo & Marquise Weast Twilight Cross Country Meet in Artesia and both the boys and girls teams turned in strong performances.
“It’s an evening run so it’s very unique,” Sundevils coach Loren Martinez said. “It was a pretty fast course. We had our fastest times all year. They liked it a lot. It was in the dark and they had it set up with portable lights all down the course. It was fun, a good experience.”
Leading the way for the boys, Elijah Martinez was second individually, finishing in a time of 15-minutes, 44-seconds, his first time this season under 16 minutes.
And the Neveah Cachora took third for the girls, finishing in a time of 18:57, her first time under 19 minutes. Christiana Branch also turned in a noteworthy performance for the girls, taking seventh in 19:47, with Ingrid Valenzuela 32nd in 22:48.
The girls finished fifth overall with 116 points in a 14-team field.
For the boys, Mylan Archuleta was 49th in 18:46, helping the Sundevils to finish eighth with 267 points.
“Even across the board on down the line, we had some very fast times for both the boys and girls,” coach Martinez said. “There was a lot of competition we don’t typically see; Clovis Hobbs. It was a good little challenge. We didn’t know what to expect. It was a good opportunity to go down there to experience that race.”