SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
Kudos to St. Pius X senior Jaque Pinon for realizing her dream of winning the state cross country championship by leading from start to finish in Saturday’s 5A race at Rio Ranch HS
Taos took one, two, three in the 4A championships, as well as team honors under long-time coach Bruce Gomez
By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today
What a difference a year made for Jaque Pinon.
Now a senior at St. Pius X in Albuquerque, last year and this year’s state cross country championships were like night and day. The night one was a nightmare, the day one a dream come true.
Just to backtrack to last year’s states in Rio Rancho, while admiring the St. Pius X bright running uniforms in colors of white mixed with black and green lines, the Sartan girls appeared to be down and out, disappointed, said they didn’t run all that well today.
They had an individual star, their top harrier, and that was Pinon, who was standing by herself. With no reason to ask questions, it was all right to inform them that they still had the neatest uniforms.
That was then, this is now, when St. Pius X showed off its new running uniforms and from start to finish, the runners only saw the back of Pinon.
Last year was history, gone and forgotten, now Pinon was state 5A champion. Now the uniforms were a light, bright green with fancy school lettering on the front and back, plus there were sparkling gold sprinkles on the cheeks. Again, the best in show.
After Pinon waited at the finish to hug runners that followed her, she was smiling, relieved that she will attend Boston College with a state championship. There, she intends to major in bio chemistry and pre-med.
“What happened last year,” she said, “was that I was looking forward to a real good season, but in the summer I broke my foot. Then I was eager to get back, I over trained, got worn town.”
But this time she did everything in the correct way. She won every race she ran in, depending on the course, her times were good.
And on Saturday, it was like catch me if you can, and all the others saw were her heels. She ran 18:42.40, the second-best winning time in the five classes.
Only 3-time state 6A champion Amanda Mayoral of Rio Rancho Cleveland did better by going 18:23.65. Next came Taos freshman Ella Katz of Los Alamos who won 4A in 20:18.50. Penasco sophomore Carly Gonzales took her third A-2A championship in 20:36.55, and Albuquerque Cottonwood Classical senor was first in 3A in 20:13.60.
Pinon went out right after the gun went off and ran a 6:02 pace. The senior on the team, she went about searching for her teammates and offering some hugs.
In 3A, Taos not only won the team title, but swept the first three places. Katz ran first in 20:18.80, senior Cora Cannedy was next in 20:26.45. tall 8th grader Alyx Mastor was next in 20:27.05. They are coached by Bruce Gomez, now in his 36th year with the program.
So Brown will lose Cannedy, the only senior, and returns a state champion, a third placer, one junior, three freshmen and one 8th-grader. Cannedy has also won a state XC title, prefers cross country over soccer, where she played for four years. She said she’s undecided on college plans.
Los Alamos is also young. Not one senior in the lineup, and its best runner is freshman Lidia Appell, who was four places behind Pinon in 19:47.95.
This program has won 20 state championships, the most among the girls, but have had only three individual winners, (Kristen Hemphill won three times). which is why head coaches Kathy and Rob Hipwood have been successful putting together rosters and winning teams. To them, run in a pack and you will become a good team.
It was decent weather, slightly cloudy but no rain. The temperature ranked from 55 to 65 but not much sun. As always, large crowds. It was also a well-run event, all the officials were polite and efficient.
And always good to say hello to Sal Gonzales, the former head coach and stellar runner at Pecos High, who coaches XC at Rio Rancho High.
