WEEK IN REVIEW
FAMILIAR FACE Cibola hires former Rio Rancho, UNM star Ashley Rhoades to coach volleyball
Rio Rancho High baseball coach Ron Murphy attained his 400th career victory with the Rams earlier this week.
Murphy, 57, got to 400 by virtue of the Rams’ 5-1 victory on Tuesday night over Cibola, a game in which Bodhi Bolen threw a 3-hitter for Rio Rancho (18-7, 4-3 in District 1-6A).
Murphy reached 500 career wins (including his years at St. Pius) on opening day of this season.
Today at 2 p.m., the 1-6A title will be decided as Volcano Vista (13-10, 5-2) visits co-leader Cleveland (19-6, 5-2). The game originally was scheduled for 10 a.m. today but pushed back because of expected inclement weather conditions.
Rio Rancho is at Piedra Vista (18-7, 4-3) today to close the regular season, and that game has seeding implications in Class 6A since the winner takes third place in 1-6A. Piedra Vista is coming off a 2-0 victory Wednesday over Volcano Vista.
From 4-6A, Valley (15-8, 6-3) is assured of finishing in third place. The Vikings authored perhaps their most dramatic win of the season Tuesday when Adrian Sanchez hit a two-out, two-RBI double in the bottom of the seventh inning, lifting Valley to a 4-3 victory over West Mesa.
St. Pius clinched the District 5-5A championship April 21 in its win over Los Lunas. The Sartans closed out their regular season Friday against Albuquerque Academy.
Bernalillo’s clutch 5-1 victory on Wednesday against Sandia Prep pulled the Spartans (14-10 overall) even with the Sundevils for first place in District 5-4A. But then Bernalillo suffered an upset loss Thursday to Santa Fe Indian School.
However, Sandia Prep also was upset Thursday, by East Mountain.
The Spartans and Sundevils both finished 4-2 in league play. Bernalillo has the tie-breaking edge in runs scored head-to-head against Sandia Prep in their two district games.
The state playoff brackets were scheduled to be out at 4 p.m. Sunday, but because of weather problems this weekend, the brackets will not be out until about 11 p.m. Monday.
Track and Field
At last weekend’s Richard A. Harper Memorial meet at Albuquerque Academy, Cleveland’s girls swarmed the field to take first place. Volcano Vista’s boys tied for first with the host school.
Boys event winners at the Harper last Saturday were Daniel Johnson of Cleveland in the 110-meter high hurdles, Dylon Sandoval of the Storm in the 400 and Veto Virgin of Cleveland in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.
For the girls, event winners were Sarah Mackin of Cleveland, who swept both hurdles; Caitlin Barnard of Cleveland in the 100 meters, Amanda Mayoral of the Storm in the 1,600 and Lauren Green of Volcano Vista in the 400.
Second-place finishes for the boys included Tyler Block of Rio Rancho in the javelin, Irvin Onyia of the Rams in the 400 and Noah Fay of Rio Rancho in the 300 hurdles.
For the girls, it was Kaylee Caldwell of Cleveland in the 100 hurdles, Kjia Stith of Volcano Vista in the 100, Cibola’s Juanita Johnson in the 1,600 and Green in the 200.
The Albuquerque Metro Championships were reduced to a one-day meet Friday after high winds caused the postponement all of the schedule Thursday. See next week’s Rio West for a full recap.
Softball
Only two games separate first place from last place in 1-6A.
Cibola (13-9, 4-2) continues to lead the league, despite an 11-6 setback Wednesday to Rio Rancho (11-12, 2-3). The Cougars close next week against second-place Cleveland (12-10, 3-2) and third-place Piedra Vista (12-11, 3-3).
The Storm is scheduled to face Volcano Vista (10-11, 2-4) today. Rio Rancho is slated to play host to Piedra Vista today.
West Mesa (14-9, 7-2) will close its regular season against Rio Grande and finish in second place in 4-6A to Atrisco Heritage.
Bernalillo (14-9, 4-0), which had wins over Sandia Prep and Santa Fe Indian School this week, will officially clinch the District 5-4A crown with one more victory. The Spartans play Sandia Prep again on Tuesday and East Mountain on Thursday.
Cibola volleyball
The Cougars this week hired a new varsity volleyball coach, and her name — and face — will be familiar to local fan bases.
She is Ashley Rhoades, a 2008 Rio Rancho graduate who went on to have a terrific career at the University of New Mexico. Rhoades, 27, has been an assistant coach at Eastern New Mexico the past three seasons, and this will be her first head coaching position at the high school level.