Justin Angel comes off a strong sophomore season and has not let up this cross country campaign

The St. Michael’s junior, with a late start as a harrier, clocked a personal-best 16:03, impressive for this early

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

Justin Angel is still learning and winning.

Fifth in the state 4A championships last year, the St. Michael’s junior led the field Saturday morning at the annual Academy and The Classics Invitational, turning in a personal-best 16:03 5-kilometer.

Last season, he ran on the heels of senior teammate Austin Luttrell, but learned enough to finally catch him, and finish ahead of him two of the last three races, including outracing Luttrell at state.

But Angel is not in the mold of a distance runner who has been doing the hills and dales since he was, let’s say, 7 years old. No, not him. He had done some in eliminatory school, but that he was overweight at the time and had some learning to do, including taking off some pounds. In 8th grade, he run 5:30 for the mile.

He has come a long way since than. He’s currently at 5-foot-8, 130 pounds and one of the state’s top harriers. At the recent University of New Mexico Invitational, he ran among the best in the state plus two good runners from El Paso, Tex., and finished seventh. He was the first smaller schools entry to cross the finish line.

“I’m at a good weight now and running well,” he said. “I got away to a fast start Saturday, but maintained my own pace and broke in front at about the hilly 1-mile marker.”

From there, he never looked back, winning handily over runner-up Pojoaque Valley junior John Hall. Right behind was another Horsemen, junior Eli Steward, who took third in 16:19, two seconds behind Hall.

“I learned,” he said, “that you can get burnt by racing for the early lead, so I set my own pace and know when to open up and push the pace.”

His mom ran distances for Santa Fe High, and continued on the trails for New Mexico Highlands. He has two sisters, and the older one was a runner.

He said he gets the support from them, from his dad, and from his grandparents. Plus, they’re happy to see him win.

He said he has a good kick, but so do others, so he has to work on it. Saturday, he didn’t need one once he took control of the race. He runs about 12-13 miles a day and just keeps getting better, so there’s no telling just how good he could be the next two years.

This Saturday morning will find him and St. Michael’s at the Taos Tiger Invitational.

At the ATC event, the Horsemen finished second to Pojoaque, which won handily with 46 points while St. Michael’s scored 80. Santa Fe Prep was eighth with 241, Capital had 287 for 12th place, and next came the host Phoenix with 294 in the 14-school field of 90 harriers.

Rounding out the top 10 was Horsemen junior Adrian Veurete-Maya in 17:25. With its top runner, senior Joseph Namingha, taking school tests, Capital’s top runner was freshman Dominic Luna, who turned in an 18:28 for 27th. For ATC, junior Cole Ferguson ran 29th in 18:31. And for Santa Fe Prep, the first to finish was sophomore Gabe Khano running 18:41 for 33rd place.

In the boy’s junior varsity, Gabriel Hueata of Pojoaque won the race and the Elks also claimed the team title with 26 points.