Three athletes from around the area competed at Junior Olympics, facing the top youth athletes from around the country.
Elijah Martinez from Española and Jude and Jeremiah Martinez from Peñasco worked hard for months to prepare for the event. They all competed at the USA Track and Field National Junior Olympic Championships on July 24-30 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
All three of them competed in the steeplechase for the first time, trying out a new event not offered at New Mexico High Schools. The steeplechase features hurdles and a water jump on each lap.
Jude Martinez, a rising junior at Peñasco and the defending individual state 1A-2A cross country champion, finished the best of the bunch with a 13th-place finish with a time of 6 minutes, 50 seconds, 28 seconds behind the leader. Jeremiah Martinez, Jude’s younger brother, finished 20th at 7:07. And Elijah Martinez finished 23rd with a time of 7:17.
At regionals, Jude Martinez had finished fifth in both the 1500 meters and the 3000 meters. In Oregon, he was 60th in the 1500 with a time of 4:33, 21 seconds behind what would have qualified for the final race of the top 12. Jeremiah Martinez was five seconds behind him in 71st place.
In the 3000 meters, Jude Martinez ran a 9:45, finishing in 42nd place, 61 seconds off the lead.
And in the 800-meter preliminaries, Jeremiah Martinez finished 72nd with a personal-best time of 2:12. A 2:00 flat would have been needed to advance to the finals.
The three were also slated to run in the 4×800-meter relay, where they finished first at the regional competition. But a fourth teammate did not make it to the competition, so they scratched the event.
Other athletes from other places in northern New Mexico competed at the event. Santa Fe High’s Bryce Melton won second place in the 17-18 100 meters, and was sixth in the 200 meters. Raina Passalacqua from Los Alamos finished ninth in the 13-14 Pentathlon. And Academy for Technology and the Classics’ Charli Koseoglu was 13th in the 17-18 javelin. Koseoglu will be a teammate with Anika Calvert, a rising freshman from Española, who qualified and prepared to compete in the girls 4×800-meter relay, but her teammates were unable to make the trip.