St. Michael’s seniors Lujan, Sandoval seek to finish with titles
Graduation week began a week early for Jada Lujan, Landen Sandoval and the rest of the seniors at St. Michael’s High School.
Normally, senior Mass is the kick-off of the school’s rite of passage for its senior class — except this year.
Because of the overall success of St. Michael’s athletics this spring, Mass was moved, in part, to accommodate senior athletes who will be competing in golf, softball and baseball starting Monday.
Lujan and Sandoval didn’t have to worry about their sport — track and field — interfering with their graduation schedule because they will see their prep careers come to an end Saturday afternoon at the Class 3A state meet at Great Friends of UNM Complex.
Lujan is a versatile athlete who has done just about everything from jumps to sprints to hurdles to relays for the girls team since she was an eighth grader. Sandoval is the long-distance workhorse on the boys side as he will run the 1,600 and 3,200 plus the 3,200 relay.
The duo will play a huge role in whether the Horsemen and Lady Horsemen sweep the team titles for a fourth straight year. But Monday offered them a glimpse of the beginning of the end during Mass.
“It really started to hit me hard,” Lujan said. “But that gave me motivation to push and leave it all out there. It [graduation week] less hectic in that way. Mass was a really special moment, especially seeing the juniors who will be rising seniors, and everyone was excited for us.”
While Lujan and Sandoval are busy writing the end of their track careers, they are not saying farewell to the sport they have grown to love. Lujan will move on to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to compete as a heptathlete, following in the path of her mother and St. Michael’s assistant Amy Lujan. Sandoval will be off to Portland State University, where he will run cross-country and track for the Vikings.
St. Michael’s head coach Joey Fernandez said he believes it is the first time he had two track athletes on the same team head to Division I programs.
“It says a lot about the hard work, time and effort they put in,” Fernandez
said. “They’ve always worked hard in their events, but the way they put in the commitment, it’s great to see schools across the country are watching us.”
While both of them ended up going in the same direction, their paths were divergent. Lujan was a part of the program when the world was hit by the coronavirus pandemic that short-circuited that year.
She has been a stalwart for the program since then. She aims to repeat her sweep of the 100- and 300-meter hurdles while also trying to add high- and longjump titles to her list as well as running on the 1,600-meter relay to end the meet.
Sandoval was a late bloomer in St. Michael’s athletics. He didn’t compete in a sport as an eighth grader or freshman before taking up soccer as a sophomore. He pivoted to cross-country and track as a junior.
He contributed to the boys team’s fourth straight title (girls were runners-up in 2019) with a third-place finish in the 3,200 and helping the Horsemen place fifth in the 3,200 relay.
Sandoval said his cousin, Anthony Sandoval, was a successful runner at the school, and he figured he’d give that a shot.
“I thought, ‘Maybe I have the genes for that,’ and so I tried it,” Landen Sandoval said. “It’s been really good since then. I just trust in my training and work hard every day.”
Both of them are also quick to credit their coaches for their success. Both laud Fernandez as the head coach, but Lujan’s mother oversees the hurdlers and played a big role in helping develop her daughter into a multi-event athlete.
“They [Lujan’s parents] just threw me in [multiple events] randomly when I was little, and I was actually decent at it,” Jada Lujan said. “So I kind of just stuck with that. And since my mom knew the events, she was able to help train me. I got to where I am today because of that.”
Sandoval said he is faithful to the workouts he gets from distance coach Lenny Gurule, who is also the head cross-country coach. They helped him become a state cross-country champion this fall as well as securing the top seed heading into the 3,200 and the No. 2 seed in the 1,600.
“Oh my God, yes,” Landen Sandoval said of Gurule’s influence. “I follow his workouts to the letter. Sometimes, you feel like you’re not doing your best, especially early in the season, but it’s all a part of the plan.
“His training workouts are so specific to the individual, it’s amazing.”
If the two seniors live up to expectations, including their own, it will set the tone for a program that is clearing the best among the small-school ranks and rivaling Los Alamos, which is also going for its own boys and girls sweep in 4A next week, as far as domination in their respective class.
“It just shows the commitment these coaches have put into these kids,” Fernandez said. “It makes my job a lot easier when the coaches commit to their stuff and the kids buy into that training.”
What better graduation gifts for Lujan, Sandoval and the St. Michael’s seniors than to have another blue trophy attached to their legacies.