Athletes put stamp on records
Los Alamos triple jumper Daniels sets mark on last try
ALBUQUERQUE — Jaiya “Last Jump” Daniels is a sight to behold at a track and field meet.
She doubled down on that reputation Friday afternoon.
There was no need for Daniels, the Los Alamos junior phenom sprinter and jumper, to complete her sixth and final attempt in the long jump at the Richard Harper Memorial track and field meet at Albuquerque Academy. She already had the top spot sewn up, but somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she wouldn’t give up on one more jump.
Daniels set a personal-best mark in the triple jump on her final attempt at last year’s Class 4A state track and field championship. There was precedent for her decision.
“I do it out of habit,” Daniels said. “I feel like, if I do jump, and even if I scratch, I always think, ‘What if that jump was it’? — a PR [personal record] or a school record.”
“What if?” turned very real when Daniels set not only a personal mark of 19-5½, but it is just 3¾ inches away from the overall state mark held by Santa Fe High’s Akeisha Ayanniyi. The performance gives Daniels reason to pause as she and the Hilltoppers prepare for the big-school track meet just three weeks away.
Daniels’ preferred field event is the triple jump, and her personal mark of 39-4½ — set two weeks ago at the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions — has her threatening the 4A and overall state record of 39-7. With her also 4A’s best 100 and 200 sprinter and being a member of the 800 relay team, Daniels could face the dilemma of choosing between the two events for the state meet.
“I hadn’t triple jumped for most of the year, and I forgot how much I love it,” Daniels said. “It is one of my favorite events ever since I started track. I’m considering trying both of them.”
The good news, as usual, is Los Alamos has the depth to give Daniels leeway in picking and choosing what she can do. Even though she was absent from the triple jump, that opened the door for junior teammate Dani Trellue to it with a distance of 35-7½.
One event Los Alamos girls had a lock on was the pole vault. Junior Collette Bibaeult won by clearing a height of 11-0, and Trellue (10-0) and Siena Rolfe (9-0) took third and fourth. Meanwhile, the Hilltoppers 3,200 relay team rallied in the final 800 meters to
overtake Rio Rancho for the top spot with a time of 9 minutes, 59.17 seconds that was 1.38 seconds after than the Rams.
On the boys side, the battle for 100 and 200 supremacy seems to be on Los Alamos’ Melaki Gutierrez’s side.
The senior posted his best time of the year with a 10.70 in the 100 preliminaries that bested Albuquerque High’s Fredrick Ford (10.86)and Santa Fe High’s Bryce Melton (10.88).
Gutierrez dominated the 200 race with a time of 21.39 that was almost a second faster than Farmington’s Michael Beck, while Melton posted his best time of the year with a 22.32 that is just .03 away from qualifying for the race in the 5A meet.
During a season in which Gutierrez seems to have had the upper hand in most in-state meets, he said coming to the Harper meet gave him a boost of adrenaline.
“I love the competition,” Gutierrez said. “I don’t get a lot of competition at other meets, so the Albuquerque competition is where it’s at.”
Meanwhile, Melton continues to show progress in his recovery from a lingering hamstring injury that kept him off the track for a few weeks. His 100 time was his best of the year, and that has him confident he is trending in the right direction.
“It’s progression,” Melton said. “I just gotta get faster.”
Melton said he was especially happy with his anchor split in the 400 relay that started the preliminaries. He helped Santa Fe High qualify for the state meet with a time of 41.837 that was .005 slower than Rio Rancho.
The times are the top two in 5A. Melton noted it was the first time together for the Demons’ A squad — Melton, Valin Wittenburg, Cy Anderson and Severin Kolfer.
“We set the school record, too, so that’s cool,” Melton said. “We’re getting there. Times are getting faster and faster.”
As for Los Alamos, it get second-place finishes from the 3,200 relay (8:09.98) and junior Matthew Brousseau set a personal best in the shot put with a heave of 51-10½.
With just two field events Saturday — the boys and girls discus — the rest of the meet will see the track events take center stage with the 400 relay finals at 9:30 a.m.