Taos’ Cannedy dodges softballs in win
Course change creates fresh obstacles; for boys, Angel of St. Michael’s claims victory
Different course, different start and finish line. Same old story Saturday. This year’s Capital City Invitational cross-country meet at the Municipal Recreation Complex saw some new wrinkles because of the unavailability of the soccer fields that were the normal venues for the start and finish of the 5-kilometer course. Then, those wrinkles were re-wrinkled earlier this month to accommodate a softball tournament.
Those changes weren’t profound enough to upset the storylines that emerged from the first month of the season:
Cora Cannedy is the runner to beat in Class 4A, and she just happens to run for the team that is the one to beat when it comes to the state meet in November.
Pojoaque and St. Michael’s continued their tussle to establish supremacy in District 2-4A.
Cannedy dodged cars and softballs to win her second straight meet, outpacing teammate Ella Katz by more than 36 seconds to win the girls race in 19 minutes, 44.94 seconds. That 1-2 finish set the stage for another comfortable Lady Tigers win in the overall standings, as their total of 35 points easily beat runner-up St. Michael’s by 46 points in the lowest-score-wins format.
On the boys side, the Horsemen and Elks continued toward their inevitable showdown at the District 2-4A meet in late October. For the third straight time in a head-to-head matchup, St. Michael’s got closer to Pojoaque, but the Elks prevailed by a 55-68 count.
That just meant Pojoaque was second-best at the meet, as the Class 6A Clovis Wildcats ran in a tight pack that landed their scoring five runners in the top 12 to win the team title with 48 points. They were in arrears of Horsemen junior Justin Angel, who won his thirds straight individual title by beating Pojoaque’s Avery Torrez, 17:11.05-17:18.51.
Angel accomplished this despite missing three days of training while he was on a school field trip. It played a role in his race strategy, as he opted to push the pace early and often. The Clovis contingent did its part to set that pace right from the outset. Then Angel knew precisely when he decided it was time to take over the race.
“Maybe 100 meters over the mile mark, I took it over, and everyone started to drop off,” Angel said. “I kinda thought that, if I was going to take over this race, I needed to gas it a little bit in the first mile. And it worked, I guess.”
From there, Angel simply ran strong enough to keep teammate Eli Seward and Torrez a safe distance away. Angel made a point of looking back at every turn to decide if he needed to kick the pace up a notch.
“I was kinda getting into the hurt box a little bit,” Angel said. “I’d look back, turn a corner, look back and try to speed up. When I’d look back, I’d see my teammate right behind me and that pumped me up. It made me feel like we were ready to race together.”
As for Cannedy, she led a pack of Lady Tigers out of the freshly mowed, but not manicured field behind the fourth softball fields. The clippings left on top of the trimmed grass gave it a mushy feel for the first 75 yards as the pack of 58 runners rushed toward the 6-foot opening in the fence. Once the pack got past that tight squeeze, runners had to deal with potholes on the dirt roads and errant softballs that almost took out a few runners — Cannedy among them.
“I almost got hit by a home run ball,” Cannedy said. “So, that was interesting.”
Once past those obstacles, all she had to focus on was the race, and Cannedy steadily pulled away from the pack. Meanwhile, an underclassmen-infused pack of Lady Tigers provided the necessary support for an easy team victory, with freshmen Katz, Erin Manchester-Jones and Aaliyah Rael finishing second, sixth and 13th and sophomore Cassandra Ruiz took 14th.
This has been the formula for success for Taos, but Cannedy added that the youth movement underscores the growing interest in the program. Winning three of the last four state titles also has a lot to do with, and Cannedy wants to to continue that flow of blue trophies beyond her time.
“Our ultimate team goal is state at the end of the year,” Cannedy said. “For me, it’s just enjoying my last year, and making sure these girls know what they’re getting into and show them how. Once I leave, it’s going to up to them to run things. I want to bond with them so that they can continue the tradition of a close team and hard work.”
Sort of like the district tradition of St. Michael’s and Pojoaque having a say at the end of the season. Both teams rely on the strength of three strong runners — Angel, Seward and Adrian Veruete-Maya for the Horsemen, Torrez, John Hall and Santiago Romero for the Elks — and are looking for their No. 4-6 runners to steadily improve as the season progresses.
The difference at Capital City came down to Pojoaque’s Mario Santistevan and Zack Hall taking 17th and 25th compared to Wesley Stenberg (26th) and Justin Sanchez (30th). But St. Michael’s head coach Lenny Gurule was encouraged by the closer gap.
“I saw some good things in practice [last] week,” Gurule said. “We did two max workouts this weekend. They looked good. Now it’s about tying things together.”