THE MOMENTS OF 2017-2018
FALL
OCT. 13: A Class 6A school whose football team was staring down the barrel of a third straight season winless season, Santa Fe High had what was supposed to be an outmanned opponent to snap its streak. Of course, it was Friday the 13th and Santa Fe High’s homecoming. The opponent was 2A school Escalante, with an enrollment less than one-tenth of its opponent’s.
It was a truly bizarre day, as a deadly multi-car pileup near Pojoaque Pueblo delayed Escalante’s team bus and forced the game to start at 10 p.m.
No one told the Lobos they were supposed to be cannon fodder, though. They returned the opening kick 31 yards to midfield, then quarterback Cody Russom rumbled 48 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the game. Escalante never trailed, scoring the game’s final 33 points in a 39-6 win.
It was just the second time in state history a team in the largest classification lost to an 11-man team from the smallest. NOV. 3: It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Unbeaten through 16 matches leading into the Class 1A-4A state soccer semifinals, the top-seeded Santa Fe Prep girls went home early with a 2-1 loss in sudden-death overtime against No. 4 Socorro at the Bernalillo Soccer Complex. The golden goal came in the 93rd minute when Prep’s aggressive defensive style left Lady Warriors midfielder Consuelo Alvarado alone in front of the goal after a picture-perfect centering pass from teammate Danielle Moore.
The ball easily found the back of the net, ending the Griffins’ season in shocking fashion.
It was a year dominated by offense, one in which freshman Anna Swanson led the state in scoring and the team averaged more than six goals a game. However, it couldn’t get Prep over the hump. Despite playing tentatively at times in the first half, the Blue Griffins kept the forward pressure on as regulation moved through one overtime session into another. When it was over, it almost seemed unfair. NOV. 4: It’s a 40-minute drive between Taos and Peñasco, but the towns are connected by the cross country powerhouses they built over the last couple of years.
Never was that more apparent than at a cloud-covered Rio Rancho High School, where the two schools made it back-to-back team state championships.
Taos’ dominant trio of freshman Ella Katz, senior Cora Cannedy and middle-schooler Alyx Mastor helped the Lady Tigers dominate the Class 4A field with a performance that was the best in school history. Katz, Cannedy and Mastor finished 1-2-3, as the Lady Tigers scored 31 points to win the title.
Meanwhile, Peñasco put its own finishing touches on a title run as Carly Gonzales led three Lady Panthers across the finish line in the top five spots. Teammate Marciela MacAuley was third and Adrianna Tafoya fifth, each of them crossing the line in less than than 22 minutes, 30 seconds. NOV. 11: Being good wasn’t nearly enough. Despite a solid run that took them through the first two rounds of the Class 4A State Volleyball Tournament without dropping a single game, the Las Vegas Robertson Lady Cardinals were little more than a speed bump in the finals for the buzz saw that was two-time defending state champ Albuquerque Sandia Prep.
The Lady Sundevils swept Robertson in the championship match in Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho. Sandia Prep won, 25-20, 25-20, 25-16, handing the Lady Cardinals just their third loss of the season and their second in head-to-head matches between the two. It continued a remarkable streak: The Lady Sundevils haven’t lost to a 4A opponent in two years.
Regardless, the Cards at least went out knowing they had faced the best with everything on the line. DEC. 2: How much can one program take? In what was one of the best prep football championship games ever played, Las Vegas Robertson finished on the wrong end of the score for a third straight year when visiting Ruidoso made off with a wild, unbelievable 57-54 win in the Class 4A title game in the Meadow City.
The game featured a dozen lead changes, 16 touchdowns, nearly 1,200 yards in total offense, a 99 ½-yard touchdown pass and 14 points in the final 1:12 of the game.
The final play was simply the latest of Robertson heartbreaks. Its third straight loss in the state championship game ended with five seconds left, when Ruidoso quarterback Brennan Stewart rolled to his right at the Cardinals’ 5-yard line and floated the clinching TD pass to the back corner to an open receiver.
It followed championship losses to Hatch Valley and Portales the previous two years and was the school’s eighth championship appearance in 17 seasons.
WINTER
FEB. 17: Taos ended a 29-year trophy drought, Isaiah Martinez earned some vindication, while Javier Tapia continued to follow in his brother’s footsteps at the state wrestling championships in the Santa Ana Star Center.
Thanks to Jessie Ayala’s pin of Silver’s Isaiah Sanchez in the 220-pound championship, the Tigers beat Las Vegas Robertson 153-152 for third place in the Class 1A-4A team standings and took home a green trophy. It was the first time the program finished on the podium since winning back-to-back 1A-3A titles in 1988 and 1989.
Meanwhile, Martinez erased the memories of his overtime loss to Rio Rancho’s Ryan Rochford in the 152-pound 6A finals in 2017 by beating Las Cruces’ Brandon Baeza 9-3 at 170.
Then there was Tapia, the younger brother to five-time champion Jose Tapia. The Pojoaque Valley junior eked out a 2-1 win over Taos’ Estevan Valerio in the 170 1A-4A championship for his third state title.
FEB. 17: The Blue Griffins of Santa Fe Prep were definitely blue — but it was a good thing.
The boys swimming team won its second straight small-school title at the State Swimming and Diving Championships at Albuquerque Academy by a 71-40 count over Albuquerque Sandia Prep. Much of the credit for Prep’s second straight blue trophy can go to senior Riley Kinlaw, who helped the Blue Griffins set a number of school records.
While all swimming programs compete against each other at the state meet, the small-school title is determined by which team finishes highest in the combined competition.
Kinlaw had a strong day for the Blue Griffins, finishing sixth in both the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke. He also was part of the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relay teams, which were fifth and 10th, respectively, and set school records.
Los Alamos’ Sara Shiina ended her senior year on a strong note, finishing third in the girls 100-yard butterfly, eighth in the 100 backstroke and helping the 200 medley relay to a seventh-place finish.
MARCH 6: It is never easy to beat a team four times in a season, but that was the task No. 2 seed Las Vegas Robertson faced when it took on No. 7 Pojoaque Valley in the Class 4A quarterfinals in The Pit.
The Lady Cardinals beat Pojoaque by double digits in two District 2-4A games and the district tournament championship, but thanks to foul trouble on Robertson junior forward Alianza Darley, Pojoaque rallied from an 11-point deficit to win 58-52 in overtime.
Pojoaque took advantage of Darley’s absence for much of the first half with three fouls and led 23-22. Robertson scored the first eight points of the third quarter and built a 38-27, but it came at a cost: Darley picked up her fourth foul.
When Darley was whistled for her final foul and went to the bench with 6:28 left in regulation, Pojoaque steadily chipped away at the deficit and took a 47-44 lead before Robertson’s Maria Barela drained a 3 with :13 left to tie the score. Pojoaque then outscored Robertson 11-5 in the extra period to steal the spotlight.
MARCH 9: Gilbert Mascareñas wouldn’t let “The Pit effect” take away from the Peñasco Lady Panthers’ memorable season.
Despite a 25 percent shooting performance from the field and a 1-for-16 effort from 3-point range in a 49-38 loss for the Class 2A girls basketball championship against Fort Sumner/House, Mascareñas took pride in the No. 2 Lady Panthers’ journey.
“If somebody could have come and said after our loss to Escalante [in a 2A first-round game] last year, ‘Hey you’re going to be in the state championship this year,’ ” Mascareñas said, “I would have been, ‘Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. It’s going to be hard.’ And we got here.”
Peñasco got there thanks to the post play of sophomore and AllState first-teamer Carly Gonzales, who scored four straight points in the fourth quarter to get her team within 39-35, and the guard play of Bianca Contreras, who managed nine points against the Vixens.
Perhaps it was merely an audition for a repeat performance — the Lady Panthers return all but one player for the 2018-19 season.
MARCH 10: Anyone seeking an example of what makes “Championship Saturday” so special in New Mexico needed to show up for the Class 3A and 5A boys basketball championship games.
The residents of Pecos and Española were in full force to support their teams as they played for a state title. Pecos fans were rewarded with a sterling fourth-quarter performance by the Panthers, who used a 21-3 scoring run to secure a 58-44 win over undefeated Texico for a second straight state title.
Two hours later, The Pit was awash in a sea of red and gold as Española Valley took on Belen for the 5A title. The Eagles were up to the challenge, though, as Garrett Gallegos drained six 3-pointers and the Sundevils were held without a field goal in the third quarter to lift Belen to its first state title, 73-65.
Pecos used the combination of a 1-3-1 zone defense, a frenetic pace and 10 3-pointers to wear out the top-seeded Wolverines. Senior wing Mario Archuleta then exploded for 10 of his teamhigh 18 points in the fourth quarter.
Española overcame Gallegos’ three 3-pointers in the opening moments of the 5A game and an early 10-point deficit to take a 37-33 halftime lead. The Sundevils were undone, though, by a threepoint third quarter as the Eagles took a 50-40 lead into the fourth.
SPRING
MAY 4-6: It was a Fulgenzi and Las Vegas Robertson fan-fest at Jerry Cline Tennis Complex.
The “First Family” of Northern New Mexico tennis continued to add to its legacy at the Class 1A-4A State Individual Tennis Championships. Senior Brandelyn Fulgenzi capped her remarkable run with her fifth state title and her second singles championship when she needed just a half-hour to beat Portales’ Sarah Blaeser, 6-0, 6-0. Meanwhile, cousins Jenese and Lauren Fulgenzi easily handled Santa Fe Prep’s eighth-grade team of Isabel Voinescu and Grace Vivian, 6-0, 6-1.
On the boys side, Nico Fulgenzi teamed up with Gabe Gregory to roll through the 1A-4A doubles bracket to give the Cardinals a third individual championship. Fulgenzi and Gregory capped their run by beating Bosque’s Gus Voelker and Morgan Wong, 6-2, 6-3, for the title.
Two days later in the team tournament, Robertson celebrated a fifth straight 1A-4A girls title, while the boys took second. MAY 5-6: Tove Shere went out in style. The longtime track and field coach at Santa Fe Prep finished her career with the program’s fourth girls state title, as the Blue Griffins cruised to a 71-56 win over Capitan in the small-school track and field championships at Great Friends of UNM Track Complex. Shere’s tough but loving relationship with her athletes over the years earned her the nickname “track mom” by many of them.
In their final ode to Shere, both boys and girls did their part to send her off on a high note. Sam Sparks won the boys triple jump, while Sean Coles became the high jump champion. Hayden Colfax headlined the girls’ accomplishments with wins in the triple jump and the 100 hurdles, to go with a third in the 300 hurdles and a fourth in the long jump.
Prep and Shere shared the spotlight, though. Deven Thompson of New Mexico School for the Deaf won the discus and shot put titles in 1A, Frankie Ortiz won the 100 meters for Mesa Vista, while teammate Abrianna Griego took the 200 and 400 titles.
MAY 8: A year ago, Mother Nature helped St. Michael’s girls win a state golf title. This time, the Lady Horsemen needed no assistance. Paced by a second-place from Carisa Padilla and a fourth from Miquela Martinez, St. Michael’s rallied from a 10-shot deficit to Albuquerque Hope Christian in the second round of the Class 1A-4A tournament at Albuquerque’s Canyon Club to win with a 233-over 809 total that was seven strokes better than the Lady Huskies.
Last year, rain canceled the second round of the event, and St. Michael’s rode a 388 to beat Silver by seven strokes.
On the boys side, Taos Josh Fambro’s second-round score of 74 was enough to best Hope Christian’s Jacob Lucero by three shots after the two carded identical 78s in the opening round. In Hobbs, the Los Alamos boys were a model of consistency, carding rounds of 314 and 315 to beat Albuquerque Academy by 19 strokes.
MAY 11: A basketball-crazed community turned into baseball fans.
A town known more for its passion for roundball found itself loving hardball this spring as the Mora Rangers became the supreme team in Class 1A/2A after a 12-2 rout of Mesilla Valley in the championship game at Isotopes Park.
Mora senior starting pitcher Javier Branch allowed just four hits and no walks for a five-inning complete game as the Rangers invoked the 10-run mercy rule. The Rangers did all of their damage in the second and third innings, with eight runs coming in the third to expand a 4-2 lead. They were equal parts aggressive and patient, recording eight hits and nine walks while Son Blazer pitchers hit four batters.
MAY 10-11: What Jonah Vigil started in April, the Taos junior sprinter ended in May.
Almost a month after he shocked the state with a 46.99-second time in the 400 meters in the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions at Great Friends of UNM Track Complex, Vigil returned to cap a sensational season.
Vigil set a state record (which only can be set at the state track and field championships) in the race with a time of 47.01 in the preliminaries, then took the 400 title the next day as he won all three sprints (100, 200, 400) and the long jump in the 4A meet.
Taos dominated the headlines for the state meet, as the boys won their fifth straight 4A team title and the girls won their first in four years. The Lady Tigers had Faith Powell win all three jumping events (high, triple and long), while Cora Cannedy topped the 1,600 and 3,200 and Abigail Gunther took the pole vault title.
Meanwhile, Santa Fe High’s Riannah Varela went from fourth place in the 6A triple jump to uncharted territory on her final attempt — a distance of 38 feet, 8¼ inches that would have been a state mark but was wind-aided.
Lauren Chafins ended her running career at St. Michael’s with her second 400 title, Las Vegas Robertson’s Arjay Ortiz earned individual titles in the high jump and 300 hurdles, West Las Vegas’ Miguel Coca swept the distance events (800, 1,600, 3200) and Los Alamos’ Rebecca Green won the discus and shot put in the 5A meet.