Rio Rancho grabs boys and girls titles
Paredes, Mayoral take individual victories
An unfamiliar venue did nothing to slow down Rio Rancho High School’s cross-country teams.
The Rams raced to an impressive sweep of boys and girls team titles Saturday at the APS Metro Cross-Country Championships. Rio Rancho junior Devin Paredes captured the boys individual crown, and Cleveland’s Amanda Mayoral took top honors in the girls competition.
Nusenda Community Stadium served as first-time host to the annual meet, which had been contested at Albuquerque Academy for the past several years. Saturday’s course weaved through the sandy hills and arroyos of far west Albuquerque, with the finish line inside the football stadium.
Spectators could see only parts of the races, but runners said the path was challenging.
“Some of those hills were kind of gruesome,” Mayoral said. “You just have to try to have fun with it — and this was a lot of fun.”
Mayoral grabbed the lead roughly halfway through the girls race and finished with a 7-second lead over runner-up Reina Paredes of Rio Rancho. The twosome pulled away from the lead pack, and Mayoral gradually stretched her lead on her way back into the stadium.
“(Paredes) ran an excellent race,” Mayoral said. “It was just kind of survival of the fittest at the end.”
The Rams proved fittest in the team competition, with four runners among the top 10 and a score of 43. Molly Klein (fourth place), Andi Almodovar (ninth) and Sierra Delaware (10th) joined runner-up Reina Paredes — Devin’s freshman sister — in earning AllMetro honors.
Cleveland was second at 59, with Faith Lovato (sixth) and Britney Lovato (eighth) also in the top 10.
On the boys side, Devin Paredes enjoyed a welcome feeling of déjà vu as he held off Academy’s Jordan Lesansee for medalist. Paredes crossed the finish line in 16:25.74, nearly 5 seconds ahead of Lesansee, to win his second straight metro title.
“It’s the same thing as last year,” Paredes said. “He beat me at UNM, and I barely got him at the metro meet. Jordan’s my biggest competition right now, so this one’s definitely big.”
The team storyline was much the same as the Rams outdistanced the Chargers for the silver first-place trophy. Rio Rancho had four runners among the top eight finishers, including champion Paredes, Zachary Allen (third), Michael Goke (fifth) and Trevor Amestoy (eighth). The Rams had 35 points.
Academy finished with 49 points and placed three runners among the top 10 and five among the top 16 in a field of 100. Runnerup Lesansee, Will Stanopiewicz (ninth) and Aric Kedge (10th) earned All-Metro medals for the Chargers.
No one left the new venue with a bigger smile than Rio Rancho coach Sal Gonzales, whose teams also swept the metro team titles in 2014 at Academy. The two Rio Rancho schools have made their presence felt since they were added to the metro field several years ago.
“Within our school, winning a metro championship is a big deal,” Gonzales said. “Other coaches give you a hard time if you don’t win one. I guess our kids kept me safe for another year.”
Gonzales said the Paredes siblings “are very team-oriented” and this was the first time Reina had finished as the team’s top runner.
UNEVEN STRIDES: Eldorado’s Connor Laktasic took home an All-Metro medal for his sixthplace finish Saturday. It may not be as memorable as his performance the previous week. Laktasic won the boys race at the Highland Invitational at Bullhead Park despite running more than half the course with one shoe.
“I got flat-tired on a turn,” Laktasic said. “I tried to keep the shoe on for about 800 meters and just decided to go without it. Other than a few rocks and goatheads, it wasn’t too bad.”
Laktasic said much of the Bullhead course was on grass, which allowed him to maintain his pace with just one shoe.
“My foot was a little sore that night,” he said, “but it felt better because I won. I could never have done that on (Community Stadium’s desert) course.”