SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Joe Calabaza thought he had a good idea, and it worked at Friday afternoon’s annual Los Alamos cross country 5-kilometer Invitational run over the Los Alamos Golf Course.
The Santa Fe Indian School head coach, Calabaza has two top boys, both sophomores, so he decided to enter Christopher Humetewa in the varsity race and Marcos Concho in the jayvee run.
“I’m happy to see it all went well,” Calabaza said. “Marcos won the JV race in an impressive 17:44.00, and Christopher finished 10th in the varsity in 17:02.32.”
Humetewa was only about one minute behind the winner, Rio Rancho senior Yonas Haile, who ran 16:05.20. Host Los Alamos took the next three spots and Albuquerque Academy took 5th, 6th, 7th. Two spots ahead of Humetewa was Pojoaque senior John Hall in 16:54.25.
The next Brave finisher was sophomore Isaiah Velasquez running 24th in 18:08.22. In the junior varsity race, Indian School freshman Kawliga Ramone ran 27th in the time of 19:38.27, and just ahead of sophomore teammate Aiden Rodriguez, who was 28th in 19:45.09.
Capital’s first to fnish was junior Joshua Namingha running 52nd and clocked 19:56.93. For Santa Fe High, with its best runner, senior Brock McKinney sidelined, its top harrier was senior Juan Lovato placing 61st in 20:36.92.
The next three Jaguar runners were senior Abram Rosas taking 63rd in 20:37.57, senior Alfredo Ochoa 65th in 20:44.34, and senior Roberto Arreola coming in 79th in 21:06.87. Right there with the Capital runners was Demons’ senior Elijah Gonzales finishing 64th in 20:41. It was a field of 84 runners, with 137 making up the junior varsity field.
In the girl’s races, there were also 84 racing in varsity. The winner was Academy senior Zoe Hunter in 19:26.33, just ahead of Cleveland 8thgrader Leah Futey, who was timed in 19:33.19. Also up there for then next two places was Los Alamos freshman Norissa Valdez taking third in 19:40.87 and on her heels was Academy sophomore Grace Archbeck turning in a 19:41.22.
The first Indian School runner to finish was 8thgrader Alexis Aquino racing 20th in 21:25.51. For Santa Fe High, senior Judith Allison was its top placer as she ran 39th in 22:37.07.
The girl’s JV race had 70 entries and went to Academy senior Toby Litterbeck as she clocked 21:0 5.13 to win handily. The Hilltoppers had the next two places and the Chargers 4th to 8th. In 36thplace was Brave sophomore Lesha Tafoya timed in 24:49.77. Taking 68th was Demonette freshman Jaiden Eustice and she ran 29:13.37.
The next stop is the weekend district championships, the last chance to qualify for the state championships.
