Taos girls rise to occasion at State Track and Field Championships
Team’s depth helps it claim state title
TALBUQUERQUE he business of acquiring podium finishes and collecting championship medals and trophies was good this weekend for the Taos track and field program.
And it was how Tigers head coach Benny Mitchell punctuated a successful weekend at the State Track and Field Championships.
“That’s how you take care of business!” Mitchell exclaimed to his athletes as they posed with their prized trophies Saturday afternoon on the south end of Great Friends of UNM Track Complex.
Both trophies were colored blue, to represent Class 4A boys and girls team titles Taos earned on the final two days of the prep sports season. While the boys won their fifth straight state title, the girls finally ended a 4-year cold streak between championships. What’s more, the Lady Tigers’ 71-61 win over Albuquerque Hope Christian was vindication for last year’s podium finish fail that saw the team miss out on a third-place trophy by one point to Ruidoso.
“If anything chapped me a little bit, it was last year not getting that third-place trophy by one point,” Mitchell said. “The whole team set out a goal, and they obtained every single one.”
It was the first trophy the girls program won since the 2014 state title — quite the drought when the program has gotten used to bringing home hardware. Taos has eight state track and field championships over the last six years, with this being the second time the boys and girls swept both divisions (the other happened in 2014).
The Lady Tigers’ depth was simply too much for any other team to overcome. Sure, getting 28 points and three first-place finishes (Friday’s long jump, plus the triple and high jump on Saturday) from junior Faith Powell gave the girls a good foundation, Cora Cannedy winning the 1,600 and 3,200 meters added to it and junior Abigail Gunther’s first and second in the pole vault and 300 hurdles, respectively, were great additions. However, the little things put the Lady Tigers out of reach: Freshman Ella Katz finished sixth in Saturday’s 3,200 and fifth in Friday’s 1,600.
Emily Cordova finished fifth in the javelin.
The Lady Tigers only managed two points in the relays, but the 400 relay lived up to its fifth-seed status entering the meet by taking fifth in the final Saturday.
Those seven points provided a cushion that shrank a little when the medley relay team false started, but the bulk of the Lady Tigers’ work had already been laid out to absorb the hit.
“I feel it’s us starting to build a culture that influences the younger athletes that we have,” Powell said. “It pushes them to be better. They have something to look forward to.”
Like maybe taking down state records. Powell missed a record in the long jump by 1¼ inches, and Gunther wants another shot at the 11-foot, 6-inch 4A mark in the pole vault. She won the meet at 10-6, and came close to clearing 11-0 after changing poles for her final effort.
“Of course, I would have wanted 11 or 11-6 and tie the state record, but I was happy just to get those points,” Gunther said.
Gunther and Powell will have one more opportunity to etch their names in the record book, as will Santa Fe High sophomore Riannah Varela, who won the triple jump in thrilling fashion, but had the wind take away a state record. After her surprising second-place performance, she was determined to make good on her No. 1 seed in the triple jump.
However, circumstances seemed
against her, as Hobbs Ciara Mackey once again tried to steal her thunder. She jumped 37-4 on her final attempt in the preliminaries, but Mackey then was upstaged by Rio Rancho’s Anwi Fomukong’s 37-6¼ leap on her last jump in the finals. By that point, Varela was in fourth place and looking at a daunting task as she was the next-to-last jumper.
“I cleared my mind, and just had a talk with myself,” Varela said. “I’ve jumped 38 [feet] before, so I can do it again.”
Varela did more than that. She hopped skipped and jumped her way to a 38-8¼ that was state-record worthy, except for one thing: the wind. A 15 mph southwest wind that gusted at times to 25 mph was strong enough for officials to call it wind-aided and nullify a state mark.
“I was actually shocked it was a 38, and then to find out that I broke the record, even though it was wind-aided, was really nice,” Varela said.
So the record of 38-7 stands, but Varela has two years to attempt to break it. Besides, she’s is following a familiar path for Santa Fe High leapers. Akeisha Ayanniyi, a 2016 Santa Fe High graduate, broke the 6A record in the long jump as a junior, but it was wind-aided, too. Ayanniyi set the mark of 19-9¼ a year later. “My expectations are super-high now,” Varela said. “And I know I should get it next year, since I’ve improved 3 feet this year. I should do big things next year.”
Judith Allison’s big thing was to set a personal record in the 300 hurdles with a 45.44 that was good enough for third. It was a bit of redemption for the Santa Fe High junior, who finished seventh and off the podium in 2017’s meet. Allison raised her hands and jumped when she saw her time.
“I got a big [personal record], almost a second better than I ran [on Friday],” Allison said. “I’m really, really happy.
St. Michael’s senior Lauren Chafins hopes she gave the UNM coaching staff a glimpse of some potentially big things when she runs track for the Lobos. While she could not match her time of 57.20 she ran in the 400 meters at last year’s state meet, Chafins actually improved her standing from second place to first. She won the 400 in 59.45, although it wasn’t as good as her 58.68 in Friday’s prelims, thanks to the windy conditions.
It was still 0.59 faster than Hope Christian’s Calicia Perea, and gave her two 400 titles in her career.
“I just went out there and just run my last race,” Chafins said. “I wasn’t thinking about anybody else. I just wanted to get a lower time, but that wind smashed me on that last turn.”
In the 5A meet, Los Alamos finished in third place with 52.50 points, and sophomore Rebecca Green nabbed her second state championship by winning the shot put with a distance of 41-11½ that was more than 6 feet farther than Alamogordo’s Daysha Jenkins.