ALBUQUERQUE — Coming off a tough week of volleyball matches, including a late one Friday night, the McCurdy girls cross country team just didn’t have much left in the tank when it came time for Saturday’s Class 1A-2A cross country meet at Albuquerque Academy.
“Five of us are also playing volleyball too,” Bobcats junior Marisol Serna said. “So it’s like full action, but it is hard with the dual sport. But we love both of them so much that we can’t choose so but we just pushed again.”
With the change to standard time, the cross country team was forced to do morning workouts before school, hitting the pavement at 5:45 a.m. to get in their miles.
Still, McCurdy managed another trip to the podium, finishing third overall with 118 points, well behind winner Oak Grove Academy, which had 59, followed by Pecos at 90.
“This week, they had three volleyball games, with one (Friday) night in Questa,” coach Crystal Espinosa said. “So that makes a difference with competition and practice and everything. But these girls worked really hard.”
Serna finished sixth to earn All-State in a time of 20:41.9, followed by junior Avery Knight in 20th in 22:33.9 and junior Isabella Archuleta in 23rd in 22.41.5.
“I feel very proud compared to my last season,” Serna said. “My goal was to get top 10 and just better myself than last year. So I did that by a lot. So it feels really good.”
She’s been battling nagging hip pain throughout the season that has been particularly pronounced when running, but things felt pretty good Saturday, she said.
“It wasn’t like anything was broken, I just had serious hip pain like that when I would run,” Serna said. “It was restricting me from running. It really stopped me from doing my best. It felt like it was holding me back so it feels good to just be able to run without the pain.”
Espinosa understands the struggle the girls face and realizes that’s just the way things go for athletes at small schools.
“It’s demanding,” she said. “It definitely is a struggle on both ends, especially now with the time change. They practice volleyball until six so we ran in the mornings at 5:45 to get some runs in. Still, it was a good job by the girls. Good job. But, yeah, it’s difficult. It’s difficult to share time. We’re also a small school, so we share athletes across all seasons. So it’s tough. It’s demanding on their bodies, it’s demanding of their time. And a lot of these girls are in dual credit classes.”
And adding more hardware to the school’s trophy case is not such a bad thing, all things considered.
“It feels good,” Serna said. “Either way, even if you didn’t get first, it’s just such a refreshing feeling to see our work finish in a nice place. So I’m proud of my team.”
Still, in a way it was a bit disappointing.
“I think it hurts so much for everyone because we had such a high expectation, so we wanted it again,” Archuleta said. “So I think just having that expectation and just falling short just really hurt us. We all tried our best.”
Rounding out the Bobcats, sophomore Gabriela Velasquez was 40th in 23.31.2, senior Kaylee Martinez 47th in 23:56.8 and freshman Madison Quintana 96th in 28:18.3.
The Mesa Vista boys missed the podium, but pushed past their unofficial seedings to finish fourth with 170 points, one ahead of Jemez Valley
“I’m pretty happy with that, but next year, I feel like we should be able to do a lot better, at least top three,” said Trojans sophomore Jonathan Martinez, who was 11th in 17:01.0, just over a second behind 10th. “It was pretty good, but I started out kind of slower so I had some guys to pass to make it to the top 10. But I missed it by one place. I gave it my all to try, I almost had it but next year we are coming back better.”
That’s the attitude that Mesa Vista coach Ben Sandoval loves.
“I wanted them to be inspired to fight,” he said. “In team meetings, we were telling them that we were predicted to come in sixth. We had lost to Hagerman at the pre-season meet and lost to Jemez Valley at the district meet, so going in to Saturday, we were ranked sixth so they were going to have to fight for fourth. All of them from mile one to mile three gained three to four places.”
Junior Andres Valdez turned in a noteworthy performance, taking 21st in 17:34.0, a finish that shattered a personal best by 45 seconds, Sandoval said.
“He had the race of his life,” the coach said.
Rounding out the Trojans, sophomore Anthony Crim was 46th in 18:40.1, eighth-grader Noah Ortiz 55th in 19:03.1, senior Santiago Martinez 65th in 19:24.8, sophomore Dominic Lopez 71st in 19:38.3 and junior Johnathan Tafoya 84th in 19:53.9.
Dulce finished with 395 points for 16th. Sophomore Kash Trosper led the Hawks, finishing 61st in 19:14.2, followed by Ian Gomez who was 74th in 19:43.7.
Running as individuals, McCurdy freshman Nicholas Martinez was 52nd in 18:52.2 and Coronado junior Eli Martinez was 82nd in 19:53.8.
Back on the girls side, Dulce was 15th with 330 points and was led by eighth-grader Kashonda Trosper, who was 29th in 22:49.5, followed by junior Jayanna Petago, who was 62nd in 25:09.7.
Mesa Vista was a spot behind in 16th with 385 points and was led by eighth-grader Aaliyah Garcia, who was 83rd in 26:54.9.