Demons’ Mendiola dominates at latest meet
Santa Fe High’s Elias Mendiola continued his stellar sophomore season at the Joe Vivian Invitational on Saturday at Albuquerque Cibola.
Mendiola claimed the 127-pound title in a taut 2-0 win over Albuquerque La Cueva’s Austin Prieskorn in the finals to improve to 26-2. He defeated Albuquerque Atrisco Heritage’s Anastacio Martinez in a convincing 12-0 semifinal win during the morning session before coming back in the afternoon and outlasting Prieskorn in the finals, recording a reversal 24 seconds into the third period and holding on for the win.
While Mendiola was the lone placer for the Demons, Capital managed to get a pair of wrestlers on the podium in Damian Rodriguez (fourth at 121), and Sevastian Madrid, who fell to Albuquerque Volcano Vista’s Jonathon Romero, 12-0, in the finals of the 133 division. Madrid is off to a season almost as impressive as Mendiola’s with a 26-4 start.
Romero can claim wins over Santa Fe’s top two wrestlers. Romero, who moved up to 133 for this tournament, beat Mendiola in the 127 finals of the Conflict at Cleveland earlier this month.
The Santa Fe Fuego will have yet another manager in 2024.
Jonathan Garza was recently announced as the team’s skipper, making him the 10th field manager in the team’s history — and the fourth in the past 12 months. He replaces David Peterson, who filled in for the final month of a disastrous 2023 campaign that started with player-manager Tom Fitzpatrick at the helm. Fitzpatrick, who was fired mid-season, replaced Bill Rogan.
Garza is a Pecos League veteran. He managed Monterey last season and Weimar in 2022. He led Monterey to a 31-18 record a year ago, taking the Amberjacks to the playoffs with the most wins in team history after finishing second in the Pacific Division.
Monterey folded after the season, making Garza (according to the Pecos League website) the most targeted managerial candidate in the league. An announcement on the website said several of his former Monterey players are expected to fill out the Fuego roster in 2024.
District 2-3A girls basketball teams saw their schedule cut by a quarter when Raton elected not to play a full schedule this year.
The Tigers were 0-15 after finishing last at the Lady Braves Invite at Santa Fe Indian School on
Jan. 11-13, struggling to score more than 19 points in any game. They didn’t score for the entire first half in an 85-9 loss to the host Lady Braves.
Raton’s absence means 40% of the sanctioned district teams are not competing this year. Santa Fe Prep has yet to compete in District 2-3A since moving
up to Class 3A in 2018. That leaves six district games for St. Michael’s, SFIS, West Las Vegas and Las Vegas Robertson. That group occupies four of the top seven spots in the most recent MaxPreps.com rankings, which were released Thursday.
What a way to start District 2-2A boys and girls basketball play. None of the Santa Fe schools in the district — Academy for Technology and the Classics, Monte del Sol and Tierra Encantada — will play at home when the 2A slate begins Tuesday.
ATC will be at Estancia, Monte del Sol will go to Menaul and Tierra Encantada heads to Native American Community Academy for girls/boys doubleheaders.
The big game should be on the girls side, as the Phoenix try to halt a four-game losing streak against a Bears squad that is 8-4 on the season and ranked ninth in Class 2A, according to MaxPreps.com.
New Mexico United made some front office news last week, promoting Ron Patel to the role of team president. He succeeds Peter Trevisani, who will continue to serve as the club’s majority owner and franchise CEO.
“New Mexico United is so much more than a soccer team,” Patel said. “We are a community of thousands of New Mexicans committed to making our state a better place, bringing people together and showing the world what we’re made of.”
The first employee hired in the team’s history, Patel has also been the chief revenue officer and been in charge of the team’s merchandising, ticketing and corporate partnership initiatives.
The club also named Clint Gray and David Wiese-Carl as vice presidents. Gray’s role is that of VP of business development and facilities while WieseCarl will be the VP of media and impact.
The United open their regular season March 9 on the road against Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. The home opener comes one week later when New Mexico hosts Rhode Island FC at Isotopes Park.
The club will have at least four preseason matches, starting with Saturday’s visit to FC Dallas at noon. United will play two games in Tucson, Ariz., one Feb. 10 against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC and another three days later against Detroit City FC. There is also a March 2 match at El Paso Locomotive FC.