Winners, all winners

Kudos to the 16 victorious underclassmen Saturday at the 4th annual Horsemen Track and Field Invitational at St. Michael’s.

That was what occurred as the host Lady Horsemen won another team championship, their fourth over the last two years, and had four of the six athletes responsible for taking first places.

Let’s start with St. Michael’s sophomore Rabekah Bagwell winning four times, the 200, the 400, and running the anchor legs for the victorious 4 x 100 and 4 x 800 relay teams.

Another sophomore, St. Michael’s Jada Lujan won three, the long jump and triple jump

and ran third leg in the 4 x 100 relay. Then add runner-up finishes for her in the 100 and 300 hurdles.

A junior, the Lady Horsemen’s bundle of versatility Jacqueline Gorman also came away with three triumphs, the 100 hurdles, the pole vault and the triple jump, and then tack on a third in the 300 hurdles to go with a fourth in the high jump.

Can’t overlook St. Michael’s freshman phenom Raylee Hunt as she took the top spot in the 300 hurdles, raced the opening leg of the 4 x 800, and settled for third place in the triple jump. She also placed sixth in the 200 and 10th in the long jump to complete her long day in nasty weather.

Hunt was actually scheduled to run anchor for the 4 x 800, but the windy and chilly morning set the meet a half-hour ahead and she switched legs in the resounding 11:11.62 clocking that left the other entries back on their heels.

Then there was rising Santa Fe Indian School freshman Destiny Chino doing her part in following up her victory in the 1,600 by claiming the 800.

Academy of Technology and The Classic sophomore Charlie Koseglu was also right up there by hurdling the 100 ahead of the field, and also adding the javelin.

The team scoring wasn’t all that close, with the Lady Horsemen winning nine of the 19 events and piling up 140 points to outdistance second place Taos’ 85. Third was Albuquerque Cottonwood Classical Prep with 51, next came Santa Fe Prep with 45.50, Indian School tallied 40, ATATC 39.50, West Las Vegas 17.50, Robertson 25, and Bernalillo 8.50.

Taos had the discus winner, Cottonwood the 4 x 400 relay, Robertson the shot put, and Santa Fe Prep was first in the sprint medley and 4 x 200 relays.

The rest were the six underclassmen.

The remaining relays wen to St. Michael’s. Hunt was followed in the 4 x 800 by sister Logan, a junior, 8th-grader Ellie Musolf, and Bagwell. In the 4 x 100, junior Grace Sandoval took off first, passed to senior Milena Keene, who handed off to Lujan, and again it was Bagwell crossing the line first.

The weather wasn’t good, but Bagwell was very good. She sped the 200 in 28.79, the 400 in 1:03.09, and anchored the 4 x 100 that won in 53.76.

Lujan won the high jump with a best of 4-10 and the long jump at 15-05.50. As for Gorman in her usual array of events, she claimed the 100 hurdles in 18:06, the triple jump with a best of 11-4. and went up and over in the pole vault at 9-06.

Raylee Hunt, the state 2021 cross country champion, also entered quite a few events, and fit in her stellar first leg in the 4 x 800 to handily winning the 300 hurdles in 49.85. The quartet in the relay finished ahead of second place Taos by a minute.

Chino comes off a sparkling 8th-grade campaign by leaving the field behind when she copped the 1,600 in 5:50.62, and the 800 in 2:35.35.

Nothing new lately for Koseglu who is taking advantage of her versatility. On the track she turned in a 13.90 to win the meters, and in the field she had the winning javelin throw of 100-06.

In the Griffins doubling in the relays, the young sprint medley was composed of sophomore Dahilia Reyes-Newell, junior Katherine Bair, 8th-grader Marley Belyeu, and freshman Helen Desmond, and they turned in a time of 4:40.85, and in the 4 x 200, it was Bair, Reyes-Newell, sophomore Lusa Hirsch-Arnet, and Belyeu passing the baton in 1:54.81.

In Saturday’s track and field, St. Michael’s, Santa Fe Prep, West Las Vegas and Robertson will compete in the District 2-3A championship hosted by Santa Fe Indian School, and scheduled for a 9 a.m. start. Also, Pecos will be the site the same day for the 6-2A championships.

Also, at Saturday’s annual Richard Harper Invitational held at Albuquerque Academy, senior Leandra Motolet was the lone Santa Fe High winner as she went 10 feet in the pole vault, while senior Victoria Hogan took fourth in the 100 hurdles in 17:44. No other Demonette finished in the first four.