NM STATE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

By Arnie Leshin 

For someone very new to the long and winding cross country trails, Chloe Grieco has no problem finding her way to the finish line.

Following up her recent District 2-3A championship, the St. Michael’s 8th-grader added Saturday’s morning‘s state title over the Albuquerque Academy course by doing so in temperatures that dipped into the low 40s in what was the initial run of the day in the Western Sky Community Care State Championship. 

Short and light is what she is, and veteran head coach Lenny Gurule isn’t sure about how small she stands or what she lightly tips the scale at, but it matters little because in her short time at this distance, she’s getting around just fine, and winning.

“I don’t know, maybe she weights like about somewhere in the 70s,” said Gurule, 

Whatever, she was still able to make her way through the cold morning and timed 18:15.24, about 15 seconds less than her best time, and got away to a good start in the breeze and chill until she reached the final 800 meters. 

“That’s when she made a wrong turn,” the coach said, “and Henderson of (Albuquerque) Sandia Prep took the lead, but Chloe got back on the trail, went in front again and stayed there to the finish, beating her toughest rival senior (Kate) Henderson by a good margin.”

Henderson, who had been closer to Grieco in previous runs, took third this time in 19:25.76, and second place went to Santa Fe Prep sophomore Pappa Barrett in 19:10.95.  

“She’s kind of quiet” Gurule said of Grieco, “and didn’t make much of a fuss over the weather conditions or making the wrong turn. It was like she just shrugged this all off and went on with the race.”  

In the team scoring, first place went to Santa Fe Prep with 57 points, 16 points better than Sandia Prep, and the Lady Horsemen took eighth running an average time of 21:50.97, and with freshman Raylee Baros their second best. 

The Griffins had with an average time of 20:88.88, and finished on top behind Barrett, junior Helen Desmond fifth in 20:00.45, and sophomore Sophie Bair sixth in 20:01.22. After these three, Prep had the 16th and 28th places. 

Ninth was Indian School junior Destiny Chino in 20:21.44, and the Braves placed seventh with 154 points, timed 22:03.96, and had numbers 33, 36, 37 and 30.

In eighth place was St. Michael’s with 159, it had an average time of 21:50.97, and its number two runner was freshman Raylee Baros finishing 26th, and after that it placed 27th and 49th.     

As for Grieco, when for the first time she continues on to track she will most likely be doing the 1600 and 3200.