With the wind howling and temperatures hovering in the 40s April 23 at the Los Alamos Invitational track and field meet, Pojoaque girls track and field coach Bob Koski decided to take his team home with six events still remaining.
The stiff headwind slowed runners enough that a state-qualifying time was unlikely in most events.
“It was ridiculous,” Koski said. “Even at that, we still finished third overall.”
The Elkettes managed to score 33 points, while host Los Alamos took first with 152 points and Aztec scored 93 points to finish second in the six-team meet.
The wind may have helped an Elkette in the 100-meter run, which, along with the 110-meter hurdles, were the only track events run with the wind at the runners’ backs. Pojoaque sophomore Marissa Martinez took advantage of the boost to turn in a state-qualifying time of 12.84 after finishing second in her 100-meter run heat. Overall, she finished just sixth as the weather helped the top six runners turn in state-qualifying times.
“We now have two qualified in the 100,” Koski said.
The other Pojoaque qualifier, junior Kimberly Babicke, used the wind to lower her qualifying time from 12.61 seconds to 12.44 seconds and finish third overall. Los Alamos freshman Chase Ealey won with a time of 12.35 seconds.
“The weather has been awful this season.” Babicke said. “It helped today.”
Senior Dionna Montoya was the only Elkette to take first in an event at the meet, winning the 400-meter run with a time of 1:03.40. Her time was well below her state-qualifying time of 1:01.54 she ran April 17 at the Bill Slade Invitational at Kirtland Central High School. Because the Elkettes had competed at the Bill Slade, Koski chose not to run his best athletes at the Pojoaque Invitational held April 19.
“I wanted to give some of the other girls more work and rest the others,” Koski said of his decision.
The Elkettes have already qualified for 10 events at the state meet.
Pojoaque will compete at the District 2AAA track meet Friday at Santa Fe Indian School. Koski may opt to see if he can qualify more competitors in more events at the district meet, rather than put his strongest runners and relays into the events.
“I have several girls who are right on the cusp of qualifying,” Koski said. “The district championship is not the goal. The state championship is.”