Justin Angel wins third in a row, fourth of the season, at Saturday morning’s annual Capital City Cross Country Invitational at the MRC

The St. Michael’s junior and his team competes Friday night at the annual Desert Twilight in Arizona

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

The next stop for Justin Angel is the annual Desert Twilight event in Arizona Friday.

He leaves behind a quartet of first places after winning Saturday morning’s 3.1 mile run at the annual Capital City Invitational held at the Municipal Recreation Complex in Santa Fe.

The course had been changed because of construction at the MRC, but it didn’t matter to the St. Michael’s junior as he took the lead at the one-mile mark and finished in 17:11.

“It was a decent course,” he said, “but the overall times were slower. There were a few hills, but most of the course was tough to run on. I missed some practice this week, but feel good now.”

Remember his junior teammate Eli Steward? At the UNM run, he came in 30th, but after that he’s been on the heels of Angel, taking third Saturday in 17:20. In second and fourth were Pojoaque Valley’s Avery Torres and John Hall, respectively, in 17:18.51 and 17:29.48.

The Elks are the team to beat in 4A when the state championships are run in Rio Rancho in November. Here, they finished second to 6A Clovis with 55 points and right behind was the Horsemen with 68. Clovis, with 47 points, ran as a pack throughout.

“I’m happy with the way we ran,” said St. Michael’s head coach Lenny Gurule. “We’re getting there.”

In the girl’s race, it was Taos senior Cora Cannady pacing the field in 19:44.94, with freshman teammate Ella Katz second in 20:21.17, and the 4A Tigers handily winning the team title with 35 points, 46 less than runner-up St. Michael’s. Host Santa Fe High placed third with 103.

The 6A Demonettes ran well as senior Daisy Gephart finished fifth in 21:03.06. In seventh was Lady Horsemen junior Violet Eklund in 21:30.18, with sophomore teammate London Luttrell 10th (21:35.18), and next came junior Janai Clayton in 21:45.00.

As for Angel, his lone loss was a seventh place at the UNM run finishing behind 5A, 6A and some El Paso Texas harriers. Angel was the first to place from the smaller schools. He came in first in the Espanola Valley Invitational that began the season, and has won three in a row since the UNM invite.

The first to finish for Santa Fe Indian School was senior Coby Qunitana in 18:19.53, and ahead of him in eight was St. Michael’s junior Adrian Veruete-Maya in 17:43. The Braves took fourth with 110 points, Capital scored 214 for 10th, and the Demons’ 248 had them next.

Sophomore Luca Pacheco led Santa Fe High by taking 41st in the time of 19:17.93, and Capital senior Joseph Namigha finished 54th in 20:07.16.

The Desert Twilight under the lights is run at the Grande Sports World in Casa Grande.

Among the girls, Indian School sophomore Iris Emery ran 13th in 21:54.15, and Jaguars’ senior Audrey Gonzales ran 39th in 23:43.81. The only other Capital girl was sophomore Emma George and she was 50th in 25:32.19.

In the junior varsity, the girl’s team title went to Santa Fe High with 35 points, and its senior Cassie Hoskisson placed third in 24:52.30, with Taos’ Mirah Khweis winning in 23:15.59.

The boys had Pojoaque winning with 40 points, but the individual winner was St. Michael’s junior Justice Johnson running 19:00.02.

Then there was the middle school run of two miles. In the girls, Logan Hunt of the Lady Horsemen took the top spot handily in 13:13, but Indian School, with second, third, sixth, seventh and eighth places, won team honors with 26. The Braves’ Destiny Marquez turned in a 14:05 as the runner-up.

The winner of the boy’s race was Taos’ Lance Miller in 14:21, and the team title also went to the Tigers with 34 points. Derek Martinez of the Horsemen ran third in 14:35.

Santa Fe Prep ran Saturday at the East Mountain Invite, with the girls scoring 110 points for fourth place, and the boys taking 10th with a score of 197.

The first to finish for the Griffin girls was freshman Chelsea Griscom 15th in 24:13. Next came Sophia Addison running 20th in 25:26. In 22nd in 25:58 was Hallie Weichsel, while right behind in 23rd was sophomore Savannah McCall in 26:01, junior Brooke Little 30th in 27:03, and in 55th was junior Ellie Wirth in 31:55.

The boys’ first to place was sophomore Griffin Rutherford 22nd in 20:43. In 25th was junior Adrian Whitten running 21 minutes, freshman Max Aufrichtig placed 51st in 21:42, freshman Julian Gonzales 52nd in 22:29, senior Landon Tafoya came in 63rd in 23:41, and in 65th was sophomore Gabe Khano in the time of 23:48.

In the junior varsity race, Prep 8th-grader Evin Axlerod ran 23:31 for sixth place among the boys. For the girls, sophomore Griffin Abbie Francis placed 16th in 34:53.