Cleveland runs away with it
Storm dominates en route to girls Class 6A state track & field title
Cleveland’s might is an overwhelming thing right now in Class 6A girls track and field.
Consider that even before the last race of the day, the 4x400-meter relay, the Storm had four girls who had scored more points on their
own than any other team combined.
By the time the day had finished at the University of New Mexico complex, the Storm had put together yet another runaway performance.
With 112 points, that was easily more than double of runner-up La
Cueva (49). It was Cleveland’s third straight championship.
“It’s a good feeling, knowing all of us are part of a team, and that we’re all talented, and that we all have something we’re good at,” said junior Aphiniti Crupper, the state champion in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
Crupper and Sarah Mackin led the way for Cleveland, which had the team title sewn up early in the afternoon.
Mackin was the state runner-up in the 100-meter high hurdles and the 300-meter intermediate hurdles a year ago. But the future Lobo went out in style, sweeping both on a warm but breezy Saturday at UNM.
“I’m very excited to run for the Lobos next year,” Mackin said. “It’s a very strong way to close out my high school career.”
Cleveland’s name was all over the top of the results sheets this weekend.
Davis, Crupper, Mackin and Amanda Mayoral — all but Mackin are juniors — scored 51 points themselves.
“They all stepped up,” said Storm coach Tim Flores. “We had to try some different things, because we had injuries and sickness, but our kids were pumped up and they bought into our strategy.”
Albuquerque High’s Alisa MerazFishbein turned heads by winning the 6A 800 meters. The daughter of UNM men’s soccer coach Jeremy Fishbein, Meraz-Fishbein won the same event in Class 2A in 2015 as an eighth-grader at Cottonwood Classical but was limited to JV competition last season after transferring.
Meraz-Fishbein has the distinction of being the first runner to defeat Mayoral in a race of any kind this season.
“I knew she hadn’t run too many 800s,” Meraz-Fishbein said, “and that’s currently my best race. I got my personal record today (2 minutes, 15.90 seconds), so I’m really excited.”
Mayoral also sat out of the 1,600, a race she typically dominates, to run a leg of Cleveland’s winning medley relay. Cibola’s Juanita Johnson won the open 1,600 by a wide margin.
Class 5A
Alamogordo won it at the wire, earning a team championship by the narrowest of margins in the final event. Justyse Martin edged Los Alamos’ Leah Wolfsberg by inches to finish second in the 4x400-meter relay. That was the difference as the Tigers compiled 68 points to 67½ for the second-place Hilltoppers.
Alamogordo excelled in the relays and grabbed its first girls team championship since 1990. Los Alamos got a shot put title from freshman Rebecca Green and piled up points in numerous events but couldn’t hold off the Tigers at the finish.
Del Norte’s Malakah Martinez, who won the 400 and led her team to two relay wins, bypassed Alamogordo’s Martin and Los Alamos’ Wolfsberg in the day’s final race.
St. Pius had a monster individual day from high-point scorer Haley Rizek, who swept the 100- and 300-meter hurdles and finished third in the javelin. Teammate Jacque Piñon added a 1,600-meter win to Friday’s 3,200 title and finished fourth in the 800. Arianna Martinez also won the high jump for the Sartans.
Class 4A
Hope Christian pulled off an impressive trick, winning team honors without an individual event victory. The Huskies, who racked up 62 points to edge St. Michael’s (58) and Ruidoso (50), had their second straight 4A crown wrapped up before the 4x400-meter relay but secured it a bit by finishing fifth.
Claire Meyer-Hagen and Danielle Caswell finished second and third in the high jump for Hope Christian, which piled up placement points.
Jocelyn Fernandez set a state record in the javelin for St. Michael’s with a throw of 140 feet, 1 inch.
No one outperformed Ruidoso’s Shalom Keller, who swept the 100-, 200- and 400-meter sprints and anchored a relay victory.