If the girls district cross country meets are any indication, McCurdy will be hard-pressed to defend its Class 1A-2A state title from a year ago, but Española Valley has put itself in a good position to make some noise at Saturday’s state meet at Albuquerque Academy.
The Sundevils got a strong performance from senior Neveah Cachora, who roared to an All District placement for 2-4A by finishing sixth in 20 minutes, 32.85 seconds at the Los Alamos Cross Country Course.
That led Española to second in district and qualified the Sundevils for state as a team.
“She’s a warrior,” Sundevils coach Loren Martinez said. “She’s run in big races her whole high school career. She was All-State as a freshman and as a junior. She’s an experienced runner at this point. She can hang with most of the runners in the state. There are very few girls who can pull away from her.”
Christiana Branch has been a consistent No. 2 for Española and she finished 12th in 21:39.68, with the trio of Morgan Sandoval, Candi Romero and Ingrid Valenzuela Castillo tag-teaming in 15th, 16th and 17th in times of 24:34.32, 25:07.78 and 25:54.04.
“The girls team ran pretty well,” Martinez said. “I think we’re peaking at a pretty good time. We’ve had a couple of injuries to our 3-4-5 runners. They’ve been dealing with nagging injuries, but they’re recovering from that and they ran pretty well as a unit.”
It leaves the coach feeling optimistic about the Sundevils’ chances, especially after they did well at this course at a recent meet there.
“My expectations are that they improve on their times across the board,” he said. “I think we should be able to do that. There’s a lot of competition, but I think a top five finish would be great and I think we should be near that. Individually, I hope they go out and do better than their time from two weeks ago just to end the season on a positive note.”
The Bobcats, meanwhile, were second in the 5-1A/2A meet at Ventana Park in Albuquerque with 40 points, trailing winner Cottonwood Academy, which had 27.
Three McCurdy runners were in the top 10 to earn All-District honors, led by Marisol Serna, who was third in 19:45.20. Avery Knight was sixth in 20:31.72 and Isabella Archuleta was ninth in 21:12.84.
Both Kaylee Martinez, 13th in 22:27.10 and Gabriela Velasquez, 16th in 22:52.31, earned second team All-District mention.
At the same meet, the young Mesa Vista squad also qualified by finishing fourth with 102 points and eighth grader Aaliyah Garcia was second team All-District by finishing 20th in 24:21.24.
Fellow eighth graders, twins Mirella De La Cruz and Magaly De La Cruz were 22nd and 24th in 25:30.65 and 25:38.04.
Sophomore Isabella Gallegos was 25th in 26:05.94, followed by freshman Audreena Martinez in 27:49.98.
“Maybe finish in the top 12,” Trojans coach Ben Sandoval said. “If we all really run good, maybe we crack the top 10. We have a really young team. We’re still understanding what it means to run cross country. Once they get it and I think they are, once they peak, I think we’re going to be a really good team for at least the next two years. We were sixth at district last year so we moved up two places.”
Dulce turned in a noteworthy performance in the 1-1A/2A meet in Ramah by finishing third with 70 points.
“I was very excited,” Hawks coach Lewis Martinez said of his squad, all of whom return next season. “It’s the first time we ever placed this high in districts.”
Eighth-grader Kashonda Trosper topped the effort, finishing eighth in 26:13.84, followed by Jayanna Petago in 27:37.80 for 11th and Michelle Tecube 12th in 27:55.43. Shayna Amarilla was 21st in 32:05.79 and Kristyn Salazar 24th in 35:27.08.
Trosper was just elevated to varsity and “she’s pretty good at what she does,” Martinez said. “She’s a dedicated runner and she does the work and it pays off when she runs. This will be a better experience for her, running on varsity and competing with the older ones. She’s got her confidence up for state and hopefully she’ll place in the top 20-25.”
Coronado had three entrants at Ventana Park, with Josilen Lovato, 31st in 38:35.04, Evangelyn Gallegos, 32nd in 38:48.27 and LaKendra Salazar, 33rd in 39:21.55. None of them qualified for the state meet.