No keeping up with Jones
Cleveland senior takes 3 events; Storm boys, La Cueva girls win
Cleveland’s boys and La Cueva’s girls were the team champions Friday night at the Albuquerque Metro Track and Field Championships at Milne Stadium.
The Storm obliterated the boys field, scoring 139 points. That was almost as much as places 2-4 combined.
La Cueva’s girls put together a complete performance to edge Cleveland 106-103 ½ .
The Storm had both highpoint individuals in senior sprinter Parker Jones (25) and freshman Nia Powdrell (18 ½) .
Jones on Friday managed to do something nobody else had done this season: He took down Highland’s Mustafa Mudada.
The long, lean Jones outsprinted Mudada in the 110-meter high hurdles, beating him by 0.23 hundredths of a second, 14.44-14.67.
“It was a great achievement,” said Jones. “When I’ve come up against him, he was always ahead of me.”
Jones stayed with Mudada stride for stride, and Jones said it was important not to let Mudada lead out.
“It probably just keeps the pressure on him,” Jones said.
Just minutes later, Jones added the 100-meter dash. And near the end of the program, Jones cemented his status as the metro area’s fastest prep athlete when he won his third event of the day, the 200.
The 1,600-meter girls’ final was a runaway for Del Norte senior Jenna Thurman, who crossed about 90 meters in front of second-place Natalie Medina of Cleveland.
Thurman finished in 5 minutes, 6 seconds. She has two races remaining to log a sub-5-minute time and is desperate to break the state record of 4:58.
“That’s what I’m going for,” Thurman said. “I want the state record really, really bad. It would mean everything.”
Cleveland’s Luis Martinez was pushed for the first three laps of the boys’ 1,600, but Martinez’s tremendous final lap put some distance between him and Cibola’s Frankie Scorfina.
As for Powdrell, she raced to a win in the 100 and was third in the 200.
Rice-bound La Cueva senior Stephanie Brener — who is not, as yet, planning to run collegiately — was extremely efficient in the 100-meter high hurdles. She won by nearly a second-and-a-half.
“I’ve been working at it all the time and I’m finally getting good at it,” Brener said. “It’s been a long process.”
Del Norte’s Jessica Scherrer was terrif ic in her 300-meter intermediate hurdles victory, finishing 2 ½ seconds ahead of La Cueva’s Brener.
Scherrer was a double champion for the Knights; she added the 200 to her earlier win in the 300 hurdles.
“I’m not worried about my competition,” Scherrer said. “I’m more worried about my time.”
Although Mudada was upset in the 110 hurdles, he rebounded — almost literally — in his best event, the 300 hurdles. But even that had its share of drama, as Mudada tripped going over the final hurdle and crawled across the finish line.
Cleveland swept the 400 with Brandon Lawrence and Elicia Gallegos. Gallegos, a junior, overtook Eldorado freshman Jessie Hix in the final 50 meters.
One of the first people to congratulate Lawrence was La Cueva’s Assad Rizvi, who is a standout in the 400.
In fact, Lawrence’s time of 49.10 seconds was 0.01 faster than Rizvi’s best of the season, 49.11. Rizvi is nursing an injured hamstring, however, and did not compete this weekend. But the pair are expected to square off — for the first time this season — at the state meet in two weeks.
“Right now,” Lawrence said, “he’s my only competition. I’m excited to see which one of us is the best.”
Atrisco Heritage Academy’s Gilbert Ramirez captured the boys’ 800 with a strong second lap. La Cueva’s Randy Dias, the presumptive favorite at state, did not run Friday and he may not run at district next week, either.
Cassey Amberg of Eldorado was the girls’ 800 champ.
Volcano Vista’s multi-talented Mike Budick captured the discus, and Cleveland’s Nainoa Biggs took the triple jump in the final two boys’ field events.
La Cueva’s Akuadasuo Ezenyilimba (discus) and the Bears’ Alex Mantos (triple jump) were the girls’ winners.
Cibola (55) and Highland (47) were second and third, respectively, behind Cleveland’s boys. Eldorado was the third-place girls team.