The weather postponed all but two events of the La Junta Meet to this Thursday; however, the San Luis Valley showed just how tough Valley athletes were as they battled morning winds and competed in the Sangre de Cristo Thunderbird Invitational on Saturday
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MOSCA — The weather postponed all but two events of the La Junta Meet to this Thursday; however, the San Luis Valley showed just how tough Valley athletes were as they battled morning winds and competed in the Sangre de Cristo Thunderbird Invitational on Saturday.
With baseball games around the Valley being postponed, Meet Director Dave Curtis was up at 4:30 a.m. and noted that there had only been a light dusting of snow that stuck to the infield so the meet was to go off as scheduled. The snow, with the aid of sun and the blistering winds, melted by noon.
In the meet itself, Alamosa swept both team titles with only the top six places scored. The boys saw Alamosa score 101 points, 21 points ahead of second place, Lake County. Sanford (65 points) finished in third place while Monte Vista (60 points) by finishing in fourth place. Sargent (57 points) finished in fifth place, Center (51 points) finished in sixth, Sangre de Cristo (38 points) finished in seventh, Creede (19 points) finished in eighth place, Moffat (14 points) finished in tenth place, Centennial (9 points) finished in 12th place and Sierra Grande (5 points) finished in 13th place.
On the girls’ side, Alamosa scored 164 points, more than 105 points ahead of Center, who finished second with 56 points. Sargent (54 points), took third, Del Norte (52 points) finished in fourth, Sanford (31 points) took sixth, Monte Vista (25 points) tied for sixth, Sangre de Cristo (24 points) finished in eighth, Antonito (23 points) tool ninth, Centauri (17 points) tied for tenth place, Creede (16 points) took 12th place, Sierra Grande (3 points) took 14th place and Centennial (2 points) took 15th place.
In the boys’ 100 meter dash, Monte Vista’s Jose Flores-Lauro (11.72) finished in second while Sargent’s Mikey Fonk (12.10) finished third, Center’s Adrian Behena (12.39) finished in fourth, Evan Bell (12.47) of Alamosa finished in fifth and Monte Vista’s DeAndre Sanchez (12.47) finished in sixth.
Sanchez (24.35) took second in the boys’ 200 meter dash while Sanford’s Casey McDaniel (24.42) finished in third, Creede’s Casper Freedle (24.46) finished in fourth place, Noel Heredia (24.47) finished in fifth and Bell (25.36) finished in sixth.
Monte Vista’s Kaidon Wenta (57.35) won the 400 meter dash while Sargent’s Josh Thompson (58.72) took fourth, Sangre de Cristo’s Manuel Lopez (58.97) took fifth and Alamosa’s Chase Howard (1:00.11) took sixth.
Alamosa scored 58 points from the distance events alone. Oscar Martinez (2:02.25) won the 800 meter run while Caleb Palmer (2:13.02) took second. In the 1,600 meter run, Palmer (5:02.00) won while Richard Sais (5:16.47) took second and Cole Schwizer (5:28.46) took third. In the 3,200 meter run, Miguel Baltazar (11:16.47) won while Jose Luis Mateo-Andres (12:45.00) took fourth and Miguel Guerrero (13:02.54) finished in fifth.
Sanford’s McDaniel swept the hurdling titles as he won the 110 meter hurdles in 16.55 and the 300 meter hurdles in 43.39.
Alamosa won three relays as they won the 4x100 meter relay (46.18), won the 4x200 meter relay (1:35.79) and the 4x400 meter relay (3:36.89). They had a junior varsity squad running the 4x800 meter relay and they finished in third place.
Sanford’s Brady Lenz won the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 6 inches while Sargent’s Fonk (5 feet, 4 inches) and Monte Vista’s Austin Brown (5 feet, 4 inches) tied for second. Lenz then went on to win the long jump (19 feet, 5 inches) before he won the triple jump (42 feet, 2.5 inches). McDaniel finished in second in the triple jump (40 feet, 8 inches).
In the throws, Center’s Sean Cook was the big winner. He won the discus (121 feet, 8 inches) by more than six feet, before winning the shot put (43 feet, 6 inches).
On the girls’ side, Malyka Medina (13.25) won the 100 meter dash while Sargent’s Quincy Lester (14.06) took third, Antonito’s Brianna Martinez (14.06) took fourth, Alamosa’s Andrea Rodriguez (14.21) took fifth and Monte Vista’s Jovanna Arroyo (14.24) took sixth.
Alamosa’s Alyssa Romero won the 200 meter dash in 27.74 while Del Norte’s Emilee Haefeli (26.53) took second place, Martinez (28.73) took third, Sangre de Cristo’s Kiara Villalobos (29.98) took fourth and Lester (29.14) took fifth.
Del Norte’s Lacie Jones (1:05.26) won the open 400 meter run while her teammate Destiny Patrick (1:10.08) took second, Villalobos (1:10.44) took third, Monte Vista’s Heather Prevatte (1:12.20) took fifth and Alamosa’s Skylar DeHerrera (1:12.85) took sixth.
Alamosa’s Rachel Sucharski (2:42.53) won the 800 meter run while Creede’s Jennyfer Kemper (2:53.23) finished second. Prevatte (2:56.58) took third and Sargent’s Kendra Sears (2:59.11) took fourth.
Ruggles (13:31.50) won a four runner race for the 3,200-meter run as well.
In the hurdling events, Jessica Archuleta-Trujillo swept the events as she won the 100 meter hurdles (17.79) and the 300 meter hurdles (50.89). In fact, Alamosa went 1-2-3 in the 100 meter hurdles as Mary Streeter (18.93) finished in second and Inez Herrera (20.58) finished in third. Streeter (54.42) also finished second in the 300 meter hurdles.
Alamosa earned 44 points in the relays as they won the 4x100 meter relay (53.66), the 4x200 meter relay (2:00.66), the 4x400 meter relay (4:30.53) and the 4x800 meter relay (11.54.00). They finished in fourth place in the 800 sprint medley relay (2:14.15).
In the field events, Streeter (4 feet, 10 inches) won the high jump, while Center's Medina (15 feet, 1.5 inches) won the long jump. Alamosa's Herrerra (17 feet, 4.5 inches) was the top Valley finisher in the triple jump while Amaya Atencio (31 feet, 9.25 inches) won the shot put and the discus (102 feet, 9 inches).
A majority of the Valley teams will be in Salida on Saturday for the Spartan Invite while some teams are going to head back to La Junta for the postponed meet today.
Some of Alamosa's elite runners will be running at Mullen High School on Saturday as well.