St. Michael’s Amanda Marbough wins field events, Prep and Indian School take relays

St. Michael’s senior Amanda Marbough wins shot put, discus at Saturday’s Taos Tiger Relays, Santa Fe Prep (4 x 200) and SF Indian School (sprint medley) win relays at Mark Shumate Invite

Braves’ junior Jordan Moya winner of shot put, school record for SFHS freshman Rianna Varela in triple jump

By Arnie Leshin | April 25, 2017

While the seniors make their final run, there are underclassmen making their own statements.

One is Santa Fe High freshman Rianna Varela. She has already qualified in 6A for the state triple jump and long jump. At the two-day annual Richard Harper Memorial held at Albuquerque Academy, Varela settled for eighth in the long jump and third in the triple jump, but her 35-11 effort broke the school record in the former hop, skip and jump.

This also put up her on top the list of those that qualified in the event from 6A.

In the 300 hurdles, Demonettes’ sophomore Judith Allison finished fifth, but her 48:55 qualified her for state.

In the annual Mark Shumate at Albuquerque High School Saturday, Santa Fe Prep freshman Hayden Colfax has already for the second straight time in five events, but here she finished third in the 100 and 300 hurdles and third in the high jump and triple jump.

No problem, for she’s no doubt on course to come away with several state championships with four years to do so. She also runs with the relay teams.

At Saturday’s annual Taos Tiger Relays, St. Michael’s junior Lauren Chafins qualified in the 100 meters for state after winning in 12:91. She’s defending champion in the 400, which she won in 58:20 in Taos, and has also qualified in the 200.

And by placing second in the long jump at 16-feet, she also qualified in that event, as well as sprinting second leg on the victorious 4 x 200 relay team that clocked 51:75. Joining her were seniors Jocelyn Fernandez and Ellie Breeden, and sophomore Janai Clayton.

Another Lady Horsemen sophomore, Joelyn Fernandez, is improving each time out, running second at Taos in the 100 hurdles in 19:44. In the 300 hurdles, she placed fifth in 52:73, and also took fifth in the triple jump at 28-25.

Her sister Jocelyn, a senior, and brother Joey, a junior, are also on the team of head coach Joey Fernandez, their dad.

Santa Fe Indian School was also at Taos and its sophomore, Jordan Moya, took first in the shot put by throwing 30-5.

In the 1.600 sprint medley relay, the Braves’ foursome of freshman Iris Emery, sophomore Dominque Chavarillo, and juniors Sunshine Eaton and Shauntel Riley were victorious in 4:46.71, with Emery holding off Laguna-Acoma stellar anchor Terri Daley. Prep took sixth in 5:09.92.

Another youngster who impressed at Taos was Griffins’ sophomore Lincoln Taylor dashing second in the 200 meters in 28:14. In third and fourth were juniors Samantha Wilson (28:56) and Selma Flint (28:84). Taylor also ran second leg on the Prep 4 x 200 winners that timed 1:51.89.

And Griffins’ Elizabeth Whiting, a senior, did her part as the state qualifier in the 800 by winning the race in 2:25.63, four seconds ahead of the runner-up. Another senior, Annika Birk, dashed third in the 100 in 13:44. In the 4 x 100, Prep finished fourth in 54:56.

For St. Michael’s, sophomore Claire Lee took second in the triple jump by soaring 32-3. Third was Breeden (31-4.5) and sixth was Lady Horsemen freshman Izzy Connelly (28-15) right behind Joelyn Fernandez.

St. Michael’s ran third in the 4 x 400 relay and fourth in both the 4 x 200 and 1,600 sprint medley.

Its senior Amanda Marbourgh won both the shot put at 30-6 and the discus at 99-6. In the javelin, state leader Jocelyn Fernandez took first with a best of 102-0.

In the team scoring, the Lady Horsemen finished first with 118 points, and host Taos was next with 91, with eight schools in the field.

At its Harper meet, Santa Fe High came in 11^th with nine points, with Rio Rancho Cleveland winning handily with 99 points over runner-up Los Alamos, which totaled 43.5. There were 19 schools competing here.

At the Shumate Invitational, Prep finished second with 64 points, but Albuquerque Hope Christian won going away with a whooping 165, while the Braves placed eighth with 17 in the field of 16 schools.

The next stop for the A-3A schools are the district meets this weekend. The following weekend, these schools run at the state championships at the University of New Mexico.

For the 4A-6A schools, the districts are two weeks away, and when they are wrapped up, these schools compete the following weekend at state.