Race to finish
Titles will be won today, Saturday as coaches struggle with shortened season
There was nothing about the high school cross-country season that felt entirely right.
That’s the message coaches and athletes have shared in what amounts to a season that lasted less than a month.
“Football and soccer still get 11 [players], volleyball still has six on the court, basketball five,” said Santa Fe High coach Peter Graham. “So why has cross-country had its rosters for state cut down? I understand the reasoning but I can’t help but feel that we’ve been treated a little like guinea pigs this year. We’ve been experimented on from start to finish.”
The prep season winds to a close this weekend with eight championship races spread over two days beginning Friday at Albuquerque Academy. Those eight teams will be the first state champions crowned by the New Mexico Activities Association since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
It follows a rushed and drastically altered season that lasted less than a month. Most teams didn’t begin practice until early March, navigating the wild weather swings and slew of rules changes cast upon them the last four weeks.
“In so many ways it feels like we just got started and now they’re telling us it’s time to go home,” said Tim Host, head coach at Santa Fe’s Academy for Technology and the Classics. “It went by way too fast. Usually it takes three or four meets to get the conditioning where you want it but now it’s basically trying to do everything at once.”
Host’s ATC girls team is the reigning state champion in the small-school ranks. The Phoenix won their blue trophy nearly 17 months ago and return a roster loaded with more than enough talent to make it two in a row.
The Phoenix return the most recent individual state champ in Maggie Rittmeyer, but lately she’s been trailing teammate Josette Gurule. A junior, Gurule won the district meet by a cushy 38 seconds and, according to Host, has kicked things into another gear.
“No, she’s been so strong and really being aggressive with the way she’s running the course,” Host said. “I think all those girls push one another and it’s been fun to watch.”
In a typical year the NMAA allows as many as eight regular season meets with a dozen or more participating teams. The top three teams and top three unattached individuals in each district meet advance to the state finals. Normal years allow seven runners to compete with the top five finishers making up the team score.
The abbreviated 2021 campaign has been the Cliffs Notes version of all that. A maximum of two regular season meets were squeezed in before last week’s district meets.
State qualifying was limited to the top two teams in each district. Of those, only five runners are allowed to advance to the state championship with the top four compiling the team score.
It made for a tough decision for some coaches. Some who have senior-laden rosters were put in the awkward position of picking which five runners to take to state, leaving open the possibility that some deserving runners would be left at home.
The NMAA has stressed understanding and perspective. In a time where the greater good’s health and safety is at the crux of everything the NMAA stands for, the association has done its best to limit
crowded fields and minimize the spread of infection.
Anyone who has attended a state meet knows that the starting line is a veritable sea of colored uniforms spread over several dozen yards. When the gun goes off, it becomes a swirling mass that remains tightly packed through most of the first mile.
The NMAA’s attempt to limit contact means that Friday’s six races — the Class 3A, 4A and 1A-2A fields for boys and girls — will be split into one-hour sessions with roughly 90 minutes between them so event organizers can clear the course and sanitize the surroundings.
Class 1A-2A
Pecos and ATC each won its district titles on the girls’ side while Mesa Vista was declared the champion in 5-1A/2A after a tie with Legacy Academy.
Look for Penasco’s Gilly Valdez, the boys’ district champion in 5-1A/2A, to make a bid for the title. He finished eighth in 2019.
The girls’ race likely comes down to Gurule and Rittmeyer with ATC teammates Kate Ferguson and Lily Rittmeyer, as well as Savanna Ortiz of Pecos in contention. Anything other than a 1-2 finish for ATC and Pecos on the girls side would be a surprise.
Class 3A
The news here isn’t who’s in, but who’s out. Schools not in the field are perennial powers Zuni, Santa Fe Indian, Navajo Prep (all opted out of competition) and Laguna-Acoma, which dropped down a class. St. Michael’s qualified in the team chase with Dennis Ortiz being the lone senior, but the Horsemen are not expected to be serious contenders.
Cottonwood Classical should dominate the boys’ and girls’ races. That said, don’t sleep on St. Michael’s, a team that sends two seniors and three eighth-graders into Friday’s race. That includes district champion Raylee Hunt.
Class 4A
The annual Los Alamos-Albuquerque Academy slugfest should continue, although a number of suitors could emerge. Either the Hilltoppers or the Chargers have won state in their shared classification every year since 1998, making for one of the most remarkable rivalries in New Mexico prep sports history.
Look for the Los Alamos duo of Wakei Hettinga and Rafael Sanchez to challenge for a top-five spot while Hilltoppers teammates Norissa Valdez and Sophie Chadwick are among the girls’ favorites.
Class 5A
Neither Santa Fe High nor Capital qualified for state, although Demons teammates Isaiah Velasquez and Tanner Black are in the boys’ field Saturday. Velasquez is a runner at SFIS who is competing for Santa Fe High this season. Black is a lanky junior with three solid years of varsity experience. If all goes well, each could finish in the top 15.