SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
The St. Michael’s track and field team didn’t need a broom, just enough events for athletes like senior Daymon Lujan and junior Jacqueline Gorman at the Capital City Invitational.
Just as they swept last year’s state 3A track and field, it did the same at the annual meet hosted by Santa Fe High School.
And for Lujan and Gorman, it was the usual busy, busy, busy as the Horsemen pieced together 98 points to leave runner-up Taos 24 points short. Fourth was Santa Fe High with 44, Santa Fe Indian School placed sixth with 27, Santa Fe Prep turned in an even dozen for 11th, Academy of Technology and The Classics scored 16 for ninth place, Capital’s three points were good for 13th, and Tierra Encantada was 15th with one point.
It was here that the versatile Lujan contributed victories in the 110 and 300 hurdles, and ran the opening leg as St. Michael’s won the 4 x 400 relay, and then managed a second place in the javelin behind Indian School senior Fenyx Moringdove. The latter had the best throw of 148-07, and also handily took the top spot in the 400 by racing 49:76.
As for Lujan, he swept both hurdles, the shorter one in 17:03 and the 300 intermediate in 42:60, with teammates Soren Annon and Isiah Salazar taking the next two places, freshman Annon
timed in 17:23 and senior Salazar clocking 17:25. In the 300, it was Annon hurdling 43:56 and Salazar 43:91.
The Horsemen also took first in the sprint medley relay in 3:49.86, and with a foursome of sophomore Marcus Leyba, junior Trevor Erickson, junior Daniel Kupcho, and senior Ryan Kuhn. In the 4 x 400, Lujan was followed by Erickson, Kupcho and Kuhn. Salazar went 39-01.75 in the triple jump to finish behind Taos’ Favian Cordova’s 39-05 in one of the closest events of the day.
The long jump was also close, with first place Eugene Rodella of Espanola Valley taking the hop, step and jump in 19:11.50, and runner-up Hakan Gurler-Hatch of Santa Fe Prep right behind in 19-06. 25. In the discus, St. Michael’s had senior Jordan Bernal having a best throw of 118-03 for second place, with Navarro Burnside of Crownpoint winning at 121-11.
In the 200, Asher Nathan of Santa Fe Prep timed 23.67 and ran second to Belen’s Nathan Sanchez, who crossed the finish line in 22:56.
In the relays, Santa Fe High ran second in the 4 x100 to Taos in 44:46, second in the 4 x 200 in 1:33.55, with first place Taos running 1:33.33, and second in the 4 x 800 in 9:46.07 behind Taos’ 9:27,01, and in the sprint medley it was Indian School as the runner-up in 3:57.15 behind St. Michael’s.
There was one meet record and that came in the boys 4 x 800 relay when victorious Albuquerque Cottonwood Prep passed the baton in the time of 10:50.07 to better its previous best of 10:56.10 set last year.
Then came Gorman and the Lady Horsemen. They tallied 78 points, 19 ahead of second place AlbuquerqueCottonwood, with Santa Fe High totaling 44 points for fifth place, Academy of Technology and The Classics scoring 40, Santa Fe Indian with 33 for eight place, and Santa Fe Prep 13th with two points.
Gorman did her part, entering the usual events and taking first in the triple jump with a best of 31-02, and the pole vault as she went up and over at 9 feet, just ahead of runner-up senior Leandra Motolet of Santa Fe High whose best was at 8-06. Gorman also ran the anchor leg on St. Michael’s second place 4 x 200 relay quartet that ran 1:51.75 behind Cottonwood, and came in fourth in the 100 hurdles in 18:60, with the three ahead of her only 9 tenths apart.
St. Michael’s junior Grace Sandoval added her triumph in the 400 in 1:03.33
The Lady Horsemen finished second in the 4 x 200 and passed the baton in 1:51.75 in back of Cottonwood’s 1:50.98. In the sprint medley, it was Indian School doing 5:01.58 in a close race behind Belen, which clocked 5:01.65.
Senior Milena Keene of St. Michael’s sped second in the 200 in 22:64, and second in shot put with a best throw of 30 feet, and in the long jump it was Lady Horsemen sophomore Jada Lujan going 15:10.25 as the runner-up.
Then there was Acadamy of Technology and The Classics sophomore Charli Koseoglu with another big day. She was perfect in the four events she entered, the 100 meters in 12.91, the 100 hurdles in 17:04, the 300 hurdles in 49:09, and capped it off by winning the javelin with a throw 99-04. \
And for St. Michael’s, it was only June of 2021 when its girls and boys swept the 3A state championships, and on the heels of that was yet another sweep, this time in Santa Fe at the Capital City Invitational.
