WEEK IN REVIEW
It was largely a quiet two days for local tennis athletes at the state singles and doubles championships Wednesday and Thursday.
Soft-spoken Bosque School freshman Neil Katzman carried the banner for Rio West.
He captured the Class 1A-4A state singles title at the Jerry Cline complex in Albuquerque, defeating New Mexico Military Institute’s Farid Yunes. Yunes won the first set 6-2, Katzman rallied to win the second set 7-5 and Katzman was leading 3-2 in the third set when Yunes retired because of leg cramps.
It is the second state victory for Katzman, who last year won doubles in 1A-4A with his older brother Will.
The St. Pius girls doubles team of Karina Scheller and Maddie Hoff won third place in Class 5A.
The state team tennis events began Friday at several sites around the city. They conclude today.
Baseball
Six of the Rio West area’s eight baseball-playing schools qualified for the state playoffs.
All of them were in games Friday, as each began a best-ofthree series to see who advances to the quarterfinals next week.
In Class 6A, Cleveland is playing Mayfield, Volcano Vista is facing Las Cruces, Rio Rancho is playing Eldorado and Valley is traveling to meet Hobbs.
St. Pius in 5A has a series with Belen. Bernalillo in 4A is playing Robertson.
All the series staged Game 1s on Friday, with Game 2 this morning, followed by a third game, if necessary.
Track and field
Volcano Vista’s boys and Cleveland’s girls both appear well on their way to defending their 2016 Class 6A state championships.
The Hawks and Storm dominated at last weekend’s Albuquerque Metro Championships at Nusenda Community Stadium.
St. Pius’ Haley Rizek (both hurdles, javelin) was a threeevent champion, and Cleveland’s Amanda Mayoral won the 3,200-meter final and 1,600-meter final, both within less than two hours of each another.
Other girls event winners were Cibola’s Hannah Thompson in the 100, St. Pius’ Arianna Martinez in the high jump, Valley’s Jaquiline Sanchez in the shot put, Cleveland’s Caitlin Barnard in the long jump and Cleveland’s Elizabeth Davis in the triple jump.
Boys event winners from Rio West were: Volcano Vista’s Ivan Piñeda-Dominguez in the 3,200; Cleveland’s Daniel Johnson in the 110 high hurdles (in a tight finish with Rio Rancho’s Josh Foley) and 300-meter intermediate hurdles; Volcano’s David Cormier in the 100; the Hawks’ Jericho Cleveland in the 1,600; Abram Schaap of Volcano Vista in the 400; Blaine Grant of the Hawks in the 200 and the long jump; Domonic Fischer of West Mesa in the high jump; and Desmond Carpenter of Cibola in the triple jump.
Second-place finishes for the girls: Sarah Snippen of Cleveland in the shot put; Lillian Wychoff of St. Pius in the javelin; Sydney Hopkins of Cibola in the discus; Kaylee Caldwell of Cleveland in the 100 hurdles; Barnard in the 100; Cibola’s Juanita Johnson in the 1,600, where she very nearly beat Mayoral, losing by 0.08 seconds; Savannah Vasquez of the Storm in the 300 hurdles; and Sierra Delaware of Rio Rancho in the 800.
Other runner-up finishes for the boys: Samuel Kress of Volcano Vista in the high jump; Nolan Havlick and Korrin Williams of Rio Rancho, tied for second in the pole vault; Brendon Armstead of Cleveland in the shot put; Cormier in the long jump; Jordan McClelland of Cibola in the triple jump; Grant in the 100; Veto Virgin of Cleveland in the 400; Jake Quinn of Rio Rancho in the 300 hurdles; and Schaap in the 200.
Local athletes this weekend have their last chance to qualify for state, at district meets.
Golf
The state tournaments are Monday and Tuesday; Class 6A is at Nancy Lopez Golf Course at Spring River in Roswell, 5A is in Albuquerque at the Canyon Club, and 1A-4A is in Farmington at Piñon Hills.
Cleveland’s boys and girls both should be in the mix for a trophy come Tuesday afternoon.
Jacque Galloway is after her second straight individual state title with the Storm. Elexiss Gutierrez, Sabrina Chavez, Corey Kizer and Alexa Forrest round out the Cleveland team going to Roswell.
Rio Rancho’s girls also qualified: Deane Reaves, Claire Golder, Cierra Beebe, Emily Yates and Maria Martinez. Virginia Lopes of Cibola also has qualified.
The Cleveland boys are a strong threat in 6A with Alejandro Armijo, Corey Haught, Enrique Armijo, Lorne Fishburn and Chad Lucero.
Individually, Ben Wells and Richard Alarid of Volcano Vista also are playing, as is Scott Baehr of Rio Rancho.
St. Pius’ girls are one of the team favorites next week, led by junior Ashlee Garrett. Cindy Herrera, Jordan Martindale, Shamyra Sanchez and Kori Tellez round out the team, and another Sartan, Sarah Brown, will compete as an individual.
Aidan Thomas of the St. Pius boys team also has qualified for state.
Bosque School qualified one boy and one girl individually to compete in Farmington: Matthew Ellis and Shyann Duran.
Softball
The state postseason brackets will be announced Sunday, with a twist. The playoff draws are 12 teams now instead of 16, and that will put a couple of Rio West schools — in particular West Mesa (15-9, 8-2) — in jeopardy of not being selected.
From District 1-6A, first-place Cibola (14-9, 5-2) has a crucial home game today against secondplace Piedra Vista (14-11, 4-3). Last-place Rio Rancho (11-14, 2-5) met fourth-place Cleveland (12-12, 3-4) on Friday afternoon, and the loser of that game could easily miss the playoffs.
Bernalillo (18-7, 6-0 in 5-4A) is assured of making the Class 4A field.
Signings, notes
Two undefeated state wrestling champions from Volcano Vista have signed national letters of intent.
Richard Govea, who is a threetime individual state champ, signed with Division I University of Northern Colorado. Teammate Marcus Santillanes signed with New Mexico Highlands.
Cleveland’s Brendon Armstead is the recipient of the New Mexico Athletic Directors Association Male Scholar Athlete Award. Armstead has been a member of state championship football teams and wrestling squads while at Cleveland. His GPA is 4.18, which puts him in the top 1 percent at Cleveland. He is going to attend Notre Dame and major in mechanical engineering and neuroscience.
Marcos Rivera, a longtime boys basketball assistant at St. Pius, this week left the Sartans to become head coach at Sandia Prep.