Taos soccer star rocks Jamboree meet
RIO RANCHO — Cross-country or soccer?
Cora Cannedy has never faced that dilemma.
The Taos senior is a standout in both fields, but she never has to worry about an either/ or situation because of how her coaches work together to balance what’s best for her and for the teams. So, it was no surprise that the girls soccer team was off on Saturday for the biggest regular-season meet of the season — the Rio Rancho Jamboree.
“We definitely weigh what each team needs the most,” Cannedy said. “For the most part, I’ve been able to balance both. The coaches have been good about scheduling [match] times that will work with crosscountry. I owe them so much.”
And what better way to thank them by pouring her heart over 5 kilometers on the course at Rio Rancho High School — the very same one that Cannedy will traverse in three weeks for the state cross-country meet. Cannedy used a strong push over the final 1½ miles to move from 13th place to fourth in the girls championship division with a time of 19 minutes, 48.70 seconds. She led a strong performance by the Lady Tigers that was rewarded with a fifth place finish in the team standings, behind bigschool stalwarts Rio Rancho, Rio Rancho Cleveland, Albuquerque Eldorado and Volcano Vista.
Cannedy didn’t recall how she passed so many runners, but by the time she entered the football stadium, she was at the head of a group of five runners striding toward the finish line.
“I just stayed focus,” Cannedy said. “The main thing is to not lose focus halfway through and just compromise. You just have to keep pushing and get by one more person.”
The senior is setting a good example for some of the younger Lady Tigers, and they are following suit. Even without sophomore Cassandra Ruiz, Taos saw eighth-grader Alyx Mastor fill in more than admirably and finish as the third best runner on the team in 25th place overall. She was less than 15 seconds behind freshman Ella Katz, who took 22nd.
It made Cannedy smile, remembering her eighth grade year when the Lady Tigers barely had enough to fill a sevenrunner roster.
“It’s really nice to see the girls who want to come out and want to run and see the program really grow,” Cannedy said.
Growth was visible for the Pecos and Academy for Technology and the Classics girls teams in the small-school race. The Lady Panthers were finally healthy to run the lineup they expected to have at the beginning of the season, and it paid off with perhaps their best performance of the season.
Led by a 10th place performance by freshman Vanessa Dominguez, Pecos had its top five runners finish within 11 positions of each other. It wasn’t quite enough to beat Albuquerque Cottonwood Classical Prep, which won the smallschool division with 65 points, but the Lady Panthers held off their District 2/3-3A foe, the Phoenix, by a 77-79 margin.
“Our practices have been well,” Dominguez said. “We’ve had some tough times, but we’re starting to get it together.”
ATC and Pecos almost swapped positions, but Josette Gurule needed just another yard to beat the Lady Panthers’ Kianna Quintana for 17th place. Instead, Pecos held on to the position by .10 seconds.
“We’ve been kinda flying under the radar a little bit, but out girls have been good,” Phoenix head coach Tim Host said.
Carly Gonzales continues to leave a blip on that screen, which gets larger with each week. The Peñasco sophomore won the small-school race in 20:41.50, beating Cottonwood Classical’s Rhylyn Jones by 1.3 seconds. Gonzales didn’t realize she had won until Jones handed her the first place medal that an official erroneously handed Jones after the race.
“She was really honest, and she told her, ‘She came in before me,’ ” Gonzales said.
Gonzales was one of two Northern runners to bring home a first place medal, as West Las Vegas’ Miguel Coca took the boys large-school division. Coca had the best time of any Northern runner, as he ran a 16:31.20 that was 19.7 seconds faster than teammate James Esquibel. In fact, The Dons had three of the top four finishers in the race, and won the team title with a score of 125.
As great as that score was, it also revealed the ongoing problem West Las Vegas has had over the past three season — perhaps the best threesome in Class 4A, but little help from the rest. Jarred Baca was a solid No. 4 runner in 30th, but the Dons had to wait until Omar Gallardo took 88th.
Coca said the plan all season long was to build up momentum heading into state, so the largeschool team title was a step in the right direction.
“First, we gotta start off small, with the small schools, then work our way up,” Coca said. “And there were some big schools here, 4-A, 5-A, 6-A. So it’s good to work our way up. We got about a month left, so it’s moving fast.”
Coca ended up with the fastest time of any 4A runner at the meet, besting Justin Angel of St. Michael’s by 10.9 seconds. Angel’s time of 16:42.10 was good for ninth place in the boys championship division, as he tried to keep up with the pace set by Kirtland Central’s Kashon Harrison, who won the race in 15:50.70.
Angel and teammate Eli Seward, who finished in 15th, both said a two week layoff and an intense week of workouts took their toll. The Horsemen, considered contenders in 4A, were 17th as a team, well behind Navajo Prep, Pojoaque Valley and Santa Fe Indian School in the championship division.
“About 300 meters into the race, I just felt like, it wasn’t hard, but I felt the tension in my leg,” Angel said.
“It just threw off our game, coming from the [Desert Twilight Classic] in Arizona, the being off for two weeks and coming here,” Seward said.