City's track and field teams bring home 3 trophies from state meet

ALBUQUERQUE — For only the third time since Cleveland High School opened in 2009, three of the City of Vision’s four track and field teams brought home trophies from the state meet.

The Cleveland High boys team won for the eighth year in a row, topping the runner-up Rio Rancho Rams,75-62. It was Cleveland’s 11th state title in the past 12 seasons, excluding the pandemic season of 2020, when no state meet was held; surprisingly, the CHS boys tied for 10th in 2015, after winning three years in a row and then eight straight since then.

And the Rio Rancho girls, capping a school year that saw the school’s girls’ teams capture the state cross-country and powerlifting titles, won their first blue track and field trophy, although the Rams shared it with Eldorado, which also amassed 61 points.

Cleveland’s girls were sixth with a team score of 43.

The Rams girls seemed destined for a red trophy as they trailed the Eagles 61-57 heading into the final event on Saturday, the 4x400 relay. The Rams finished fourth in that event, good for four points — and the Eagles finished last, adding zero points and leading to the deadlock.

In the previous years in which three teams brought home hardware, there was only one championship: In 2014, the Storm boys were first, and the Rams boys and Storm girls were third; in 2022, the Storm boys were champs, the Rio Rancho boys were second and the Rams girls tied for third, matching their previous best finishes of third in 2001, 2009 and 2010.

CHS coach Kenny Henry was asked when he knew he’d be taking home another blue trophy.

“For us, it was the medley relay, even though Rio Rancho beat us in that event,” he said. “We were looking at Organ Mountain at that point; that event gave us the points to make it mathematically impossible for them to beat us. Two points later in that two-mile (3,200 meters) later, by Lucas Espinosa, did it for us all the way around.”

The Storm just seem to reload year after year; it’s never been a rebuilding process, except for maybe after that 10th-place finish.

“You start looking at the list of guys that are back,” Henry said. “It’s funny — it’s always like half, or maybe a few more than half. Year to year, that’s always kinda the number, and I think 11 guys of our 22 are back next year, so, yeah, we’re excited.”

Henry credited Joaquin Armijo, who “scored an extra point in the 300-hurdles (fifth place finisher) than he was supposed to, but a big thing for us was guys coming in and doing exactly what it showed on paper — sometimes that’s impossible to do.

“And our throwers, who have been our rock this year, and so stout. They come in here and are expected to finish incredibly high in all three — and they did it in all three. … They have stepped up and been the dudes every time.”

Those “dudes” were Stratton Shufelt, who won the shot put (56-11) for the third year in a row and also won the discus (153-10), plus Moses Sparks, second in the shot put, and Grant Wade, third in the discus and fourth in the shot put.

Add Gabe Marquez, sixth in the shot.

Also “throwing” were javelin winner Isaac Medrano (176-9) and javelin runner-up Jordan Mora.

There was some running to be done also.

The state champs got a runner-up finish from Tyler Griffith in the 300-hurdles, and he was fifth in the long jump.

The Storm’s medley relay team was second; the 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams were third and the 4x800 relay team was fourth.

Lucas Espinosa was fifth in the 3,200.

Tahi Gonzales was sixth in the triple jump.

• For the Rams boys, last fall’s state cross-country champ, Rams junior Charlie Vause, won the 3,200 in a state-record time of 9:18.49 after finishing second in the 800 and 1,600.

The Rams also set a state record in winning the 4x100 relay (Jace Pitt, Parker Miller, Gabriel Luna and Charles Carreathers/41.35), and RRHS also won the medley relay (Carreathers, Miller, Kennedy Alexander and Cody Sullivan/3:33.42).

Carreathers was second in the 100, and a part of the runner-up 4x200 relay foursome. Ryan Brown was third in the shot put.

Cody Sullivan was fourth in the 1,600 and Gabe Luna was fourth in the 100.

The 4x800 relay team was fifth.

Vause was second in individual points, contributing 17 to the Rams’ total, and teammate Carreathers was ninth with 12 points.

Strat Shufelt led the Storm with 14 points, tying him for sixth.

CITY GIRLS

For the champion Rams, RRHS head coach Michael Gonzales fended off credit for the first girls team title in track and field in school history.

“Most of the credit goes to our hard-working athletes,” he said, happy for the bulk of points coming from the throwers and distance runners.

Those throwers were Arianna Valenzuela, who won the discus with a state-record toss of 141-9, was third in the javelin and fifth in the shot put; Ryanne Hostetler (fifth in the javelin) and Madeline Hostetler sixth in the javelin).

Taking credit for the distance runners, coming up with 19 points for the winners were Lily Hawkins (fourth in the 800); Mariah Galbraith (fourth in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200) and Abigail Beam (second in the 1,600 and second in the 3,200).

Also, the 4x800 relay team (Jordyn Griego, Brooke Chisholm, Ann Zarate-Aguilar and Lily Hawkins/9:52.1) was first and the medley quartet was second, adding 18 points.

The 4x400 relay squad was fourth.

Kieara Trujillo-Garcia was fifth in the 20; Abby McGee was sixth in the pole vault.

“We appreciate our athletes for being coachable and having a positive attitude,” he added. “Every point mattered to achieve the state title.”

As for the rest of the credit, Gonzales said, “It takes a village to run a successful track program. I want to thank our former head coaches that built our culture, Sal Gonzales and Nate Pino. I want to thank our thrower coaches Steve Ramirez, Mike Santos and Aly Salata; our other assistant coaches Jenna Sievers and Gabriel Gonzales; our distance coaches Phil Keller, Zach Chenoweth and Victoria Collins; our pole vault coaches Ethan Savitsky and Nolan Havlick; also, our boy’ head coach and sprint specialists Harvey Carreathers.”

• For the Cleveland girls, sophomore Morgan James, homeschooled until she began her days as a freshman at Cleveland High, won the 300-meter hurdles (45.64), was second in the 100-meter hurdles and runner-up 100-meter dash — with her personal best.

“This is my first year doing hurdles,” James said, “and my second year doing track.”

She said she fell “a lot” learning how to be a hurdler. She said she went to bed Friday night at 8:30 and “ate well, was hydrated and got good rest all week just to prepare for this. I just did what I needed to do.”

Jaylee Gandert was second in the shot put and discus.

Kiana Jamerson finished third in the 400.

The Storm girls were fourth in the medley relay.

CHS placed sixth in the 4x100 and the 4x800, and Karissa Williams was sixth in the long jump.

Sierra Reza was sixth in the triple jump.

James (17) and Gandert (15) were third and fourth in points gained for the Storm.

Arianna Valenzuela contributed 13 points for the Rams and finished sixth.