Santa Fe cheer teams go home sans trophies

Santa Fe-area teams were shut out of the winner’s podium in Saturday’s cheerleading portion of the 2024 State Spirit Championships in Albuquerque.

Santa Fe High and Capital were 13th and 14th, respectively, in the Class 5A competition. La Cueva dominated the one-day event, taking home first place. Rio Rancho was second and Eldorado third. La Cueva’s two-routine score of 187.93 points led the way. Santa Fe High had 160.13 and Capital 159.17.

The 5A co-ed competition was won by Organ Mountain with fellow Las Cruces school Centennial second and Hobbs third.

The 4A cheer title went to Taos, which accumulated 179.67 points. The Tigers were the only team to surpass 90 points in either of Saturday’s routines, doing so early in the day to set the pace for the second round.

St. Pius was second at 171 points, followed by third-place Valley. Los Alamos was eighth (157.5), Pojoaque Valley 10th (154.03) and Española Valley 11th (152.97).

Lovington won the Class 1A-4A co-ed competition with Bernalillo second and Bloomfield third. New Mexico School for the Deaf competed in this category and was, by far, the smallest school in the 11-team field. The Roadrunners were 10th with 121.23 points, roughly 51 behind Lovington.

Only seven teams were in the 3A cheer category that was won by Ruidoso. Cobre was second and Raton third. Robertson finished a distant fourth, 22 points behind Ruidoso. West Las Vegas was sixth.

The small-school cheer competition for 1A-2A went to Maxwell, which trailed Questa after Saturday’s first performance. Maxwell’s final total of 162.64 points left Questa in second with 155.2. The Wildcats dropped nearly nine points to Maxwell with the final performance.

Pecos was fifth at 152.13 points. Escalante was seventh, McCurdy 14th and Mora 15th in the 18-team field.

The Gloom is headed to the ’ship.

Saturday night’s 10-5 win over Brusa Futsal Club sends the Santa Fe Gloom into the division championship of the National Futsal Premier League. They’ll be on the road this week to face Colorado Futsal Academy in Denver.

The Gloom (5-4-0) and Colorado FA (5-2-1) played three times in the regular season with Colorado winning twice. Colorado FA finished first in the fourteam division, one point ahead of the Gloom. The top two teams meet in a one-game playoff to determine the champion.

Santa Fe’s win Saturday came at the Pueblo Pavilion on the campus of Santa Fe Indian School. Francis Guzman’s goal early in the first half broke a 1-1 tie that saw the Gloom lead 4-2 at halftime.

Santa Fe heads into the title game with the highest-scoring offense (61 goals in nine games) and most porous defense (56 allowed). Colorado FA has given up a league-low 33 goals thus far.

“You win, we win.” Those were the words Del Norte wrestling coach Charlie Dotson yelled into Diego Sanchez’s ear just before he went out and helped the Knights beat Santa Fe High to capture the 2000 State Wrestling Championship

in Class 4A.

That moment was captured on film and has become part of the upcoming independent film, Nightmare: UFC Legend Diego Sanchez.

The theatrical release is set for April 19 in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. Tickets are available at nightmaresanchez.com.

The film chronicles the remarkable professional MMA career Sanchez has had, which started two years after he pinned a Santa Fe High wrestler to win a team title for Del Norte. He was nicknamed “The Nightmare” early in a career that has seen him compete in four weight classes in the UFC.

Santa Fe’s Chris Youngblood carded a final-round 76 to move into a tie for eighth place at last weekend’s Sun Country Amateur Golf Association’s Spring Stroke Play event in Las Cruces.

He finished eight strokes behind winner Zach Adams of Las Cruces.

Youngblood pocketed $187 for his efforts.

Jason Montoya of Ranchos de Taos tied for 16th while Brian Chavez of Santa Fe was 20th and Trae Torres, also of Santa Fe, was in a tie for 24th.

Chavez was 10 strokes better in his final round while Torres improved by 18 shots from Round 1 to 2.

The two-day tournament was split between Picacho Hills Country Club and the New Mexico State Golf Course.