SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Santa Fe High senior Judith Allison comes from a running family, mostly distance running, and she and her three older sisters, and one older brother, grew up entering many races through the streets of Santa Fe.
And on Saturday at day two of the state 4A, 5A track and field championships, her hard work the last two years was nothing new, except this time she won a state title for the first time in topping the field in the 300 hurdles over the University of New Mexico oval.
She came in with the best qualifying time and won in 44:06, with her main challenger, sophomore Hannah Kiess of Rio Rancho Cleveland, second in 44:46.
It was also the second state title in a row for the Demonettes after then-sophomore Riannah Varela finished first in the triple jump. But this time she was hampered by back and hip injuries and settled for sixth place in 35 feet, 9 ¼ inches and a return trip to the podium.
Allison stood on the top step of the podium for the first time. She also competed in the 100 hurdles on Friday but came in eighth in 15:42. In the preliminaries, she clocked 16:33, but the 300 is her favorite race.
“This is probably the greatest feeling ever,” she said. “I’ve been working towards this all season long. To finally have it happen is one of the best feelings, honestly.”
She no longer had the company of her sister Rue, who graduated last year. Her other two older sisters ran at state and districts for Santa Fe High, but were home-tutored students who qualified to run for head coach Peter Graham’s program.
The oldest of the two ran sixth in the state 3,200 championships and thus made it to the podium. Their brother, Chris, ran distance races for the Demons.
Judith and Kiess had been racing over the hurdles the last two years, but this time it was Judith’s race as she left Kiess and the rest of the other six finalists on her heels as he hurdled down the straightaway and happily crossed the finish line. She and Varela accounted for the Demonettes’ 8 points.
The Capital High boys of two juniors and two sophomores qualified for the 4 x 200 5A finals by running the prelims in 1:32.48, but their time of 1:33.68 left them behind the field in the finals. Albuquerque Volcano Vista
won in 1:28.09.
The Jaguars who passed the baton were junior Fabian Ponce on the lead leg, sophomore Luke Padilla racing second, sophomore Lucas Rosas running third, and junior Osman Pacheco on the anchor. Pacheco had also qualified for the 100 meters, but apparently scratched.
As usual the spotlight was on Taos senior Jonah Vigil. He sped away from the field in the 100, 200 and 400. He also anchored the victorious 4 x 400 relay team and his highlight finish brought a 3:19.44 state record that had stood for 28 years. He raced 10:51 in the century, 21:30 in the 200, and 47:75 in the 400, where he set a state mark of 47:01 last year, and on Friday went 22-10.15 to also win his third-straight long jump.
Tigers head coach Benny Mitchell, a native New Yorker who competed at heralded Boys High in Brooklyn, had coached the team to four-straight state titles, but surrendered it to Albuquerque Academy this time. The Chargers scored 100 points, second was Los Alamos with 66.68.50, third was Artesia with 53, and Taos finished fourth with 49.
As for Vigil’s come-from-behind anchor leg when he trailed the leader by some 20 meters, Mitchell said: “We didn’t time the four, but several coaches had Jonah timed in the 46-second range. I had him at Taos thunder.”
For Mitchell, It was his two senior standouts of Faith Powell and Abigail Gunther who totaled all the points for the Taos girls. Powell, as did Vigil the last three years, won the high point honors by winning the long jump, triple jump, high jump, and was runner-up in the 200 and 400. Gunther won the pole vault on Friday, and on Saturday placed first in the 300 hurdles.
The Tiger girls placed third with 52.50 points on the strength of Powell and Gunther. Academy also won this one with 73.50, and Los Alamos was second again with 64.
