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The Horsemen’s number one, senior Justin Angel, is a leading contender for state as he recovers from a calf injury, and the boy’s roster lists 11 runners
By Arnie Leshin
Lenny Gurule, who as head coach, has made St. Michael’s a threat on the cross country courses and owns four hours state championships, including four-time state individual state champions Irena Ossolaand Kate Norskog, would like to forget last year’s state championships over the Rio Rancho High course.
He had gone through the regular season lacking a full squad. So at the Academy of Technology and The Classics “Everybody Run” meet, he sent a freshman Gabby Garcia into her first-ever race. She started, she finished, her time was nothing special, but now Gurule, who has run the program since 2003, had six runners, what you needed to score. But then came districts, and that was a disaster. Injuries sent the Lady Horsemen to the starting line with only four runners, they weren’t eligible
for the team scoring, and only juniors Janai Clayton and Abby Leugers and sophomore London Luttrell qualified for state.
That left Eklund, who was ill while running at districts, with being at state to root for her three teammates and also help Luttrell recover from the 5-killometer run. Those two and Clayton had paved the way all season.
Then came this season. Leugers, now a senior, emerged as the team’s leading harrier, her times had greatly improved, but then Gurule got the news that Leugers and her family were moving to Portland, Ore., and that was as bad as Horseman senior Eli Steward relocating to Indiana.
That left Gurule’s boys with state contender JustinAngel, a senior, two other seniors and a group of underclassmen. Steward had been the team’s No. 2 runner.
Angel is now recovering from a calf injury, but in Saturday’s annual run over the University of New Mexico’s course, junior Justin Sanchez and senior Adrian Veruete-Maya ran one-two for St. Michael’s.
Also on the varsity-junior varsity roster is senior Justice Johnson, sophomores Dillon Goodwin, Dennis Ortiz and Gabe McMahon, and freshmenDerrick Martinez, Ryan Kuhn, Isaac Ruiz, and Rowan Flores.
“We have only three seniors,” Gurule said, “but we also have some eager underclassmen, and we have depth with 11 runners. Hopefully, Angel will be back soon.”
The Horsemen have never won an individual or team championship at state, with Andres Gonzales coming close by losing by a step at state in one of the closest races, and a few St. Michael’s teams have finished among the first three.
As for the girls, Gurule said it would be great to have both Leugers and Hunt in the lineup with Clayton, Eklund, Luttrell and senior Lauren Cordova, but that won’t happen. Gurule did say that Garcia was working hard and her times are improving.
And at least the girls now have numbers, six in fact, so they have enough to officially compete.
As for Gurule, He won a state championship in the 800 meters, but never ran cross country. Despite this, he is recognized as one of the most successful coaches in the state.
NOTE: Ossola won state in 2003, 2004, 2005. Norskog in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, and were the only Sr. Michael’s harriers to do so. Lady Horsemen state titles came in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2003, they lost by a single point to Robertson.
