Rio Rancho boys combat wind to sweep 3,200-meter finals
Despite poor weather, lots of highlights from Day 1 of Albuquerque Invitational
Boys cross country runners last fall got an eyeful of the backs of athletes from Rio Rancho High School.
The Rams thoroughly dominated the season, and it’s clear they are going to be a major factor in the longest of the distance races on the track.
Consider the 3,200-meter final Friday evening of the Albuquerque Invitational at Nusenda Community Stadium.
Cody Sullivan, Mateo Herrera and Skyler Galbraith went out and set the pace for Rio Rancho, and that trio easily outclassed the field and finished 1-2-3.
“Our intent was, have someone lead into the wind (traveling south), and then replace that person every lap, so that we all work together as a team,” said Sullivan, whose winning time was 10 minutes, 0.83 seconds. Herrera was next, 6½ seconds behind Sullivan, and Galbraith was third, 6½ seconds behind Herrera.
This pack mentality served Rio Rancho well in its state championship cross country season.
To add some perspective, the Rams’ top runner, Charlie Vause, the state cross country champion, isn’t even at this weekend’s meet. He’s competing in southern California.
It was an extremely windy afternoon and evening on the first day of the two-day meet, and the weather caused disruptions.
The preliminaries in both hurdles (100/110 and 300) were postponed, and the plan is to hold timed finals on Saturday.
The girls high jump and the boys pole vault were outright canceled.
The weather forecast for Saturday appears to be worse than it was Friday, with similarly high winds, but with much colder temperatures. It was not immediately clear if the boys high jump or the girls pole vault would be able to be contested, or the hurdles.
There were only two running finals Friday.
Grace Montoya of Los Alamos (11:56.70) won the girls 3,200 — and there was yet another 6½-second gap here, with Addison Julian of Albuquerque Academy running second.
There was also a Gianna Rahmer sighting.
The eighth-grader from Hoover Middle School who competes for Eldorado High did not enter the open 3,200, but did run a very swift opening leg of the 4x800-meter relay, a race in which the Eagles placed third despite Rahmer’s dominant opening 800.
Albuquerque Academy, in a super close finish with hard-charging Eldorado, eked out a victory in the boys’ 4x800 by 0.07 of a second. Rio Rancho’s girls won the 4x800.
Individually, Arianna Valenzuela of Rio Rancho had probably the best Friday of anyone. She was the runner-up in the javelin, and later won the shot put with a mark of 35 feet, 5½ inches.
The javelin winners were David Butler of Rio Rancho (153 feet, 6 inches) and Mel Macias of Atrisco Heritage Academy (116-3).
Macias, one of the city’s best softball players, transferred in the offseason from La Cueva to Atrisco Heritage. She is not eligible to play softball at the varsity level for the Jaguars, only JV. So she decided to sit out the softball season altogether. But she is eligible to compete in other sports.
Matthew Brousseau of Los Alamos took the boys shot put (46-8½). Rebecca Neal of Highland soared 18 feet, 1½ inches and took first in the girls long jump.
Cam Dyer of La Cueva won the day’s final event, the boys long jump. In a tight competition, his mark (223) was one inch better than West Mesa’s Marcos Perea-Ochoa.