Area cross country runners ‘competed well’ at Moriarty Invite

Moriarty’s Herman Archibeque and Estancia’s Jayde Perea were the top performers from area schools at the Moriarty Invite, held Sept. 11 at Edgewood Middle School.

Eight schools ranging from Class 2A to 5A—including host 4A Moriarty— competed at the meet, making it the largest in the area in two years.

Archibeque finished ninth overall in the boys race with a time of 19:21.15 out of a field of more than 40 runners.

“It feels good to run at the home course,” Archibeque said. “I started off pretty fast and kinda slowed down in the middle, but I started picking it up once I hit the two mile and finished strong.”

Moriarty’s Henry Schuett came in a few seconds behind Archibeque to place 10th.

“Herman’s a gamer,” Moriarty head coach Nicholas Arellano said. “He ran a great race today, and Henry was right there too.”

Albuquerque Academy had six runners place in the top-10 to take first place as a team in the boys competition. Moriarty’s boys’ team placed third.

On the girls’ side, Perea, running for Class 2A Estancia—the smallest school competing at the meet— led the pack early and was still among the top two runners after the first mile. A cluster of Academy runners passed Perea during the second mile and she ended up finishing ninth, posting a time of 22:44.26.

Perea said she “definitely started out a little too fast,” which impacted her overall performance.

“Once I got past, like, mile one-and-ahalf-ish, that’s when Academy was creeping behind me, and their pack of, like seven or whatever they were, they all passed me at the same time,” Perea said. “I definitely feel like I held my own in this race and I had a decent finish.”

“It was a good day, a very good day,” added Estancia’s head coach Adrienne Pierce after both races. “This race went well, they all worked hard.”

Kyndal Wiltbank was Moriarty’s top runner in the girls race, finishing 13th in 24:54.68.

“Overall, I think we ran a pretty solid meet,” Arellano said. “We competed well.”

For more photos from the Moriarty Invite go to edgewood.news.

Left, Herman Archibeque running the final stretch; right, Estancia's Jayde Perea crossing the finish line, both at the Moriarty Invite, Sept. 11, 2021. Photos by Ger Demarest.