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Vause breaks record but still finishes second
Charlie Vause perched against a table underneath the shade of a tent structure late Friday afternoon at the University of New Mexico Track and Soccer Complex and shook his head after breaking the state record in the 5A boys 1,600-meter run.
His time of 4 minutes, 7.32 seconds, however, did not land him on the top step of the podium. It was good for second place behind friend and competitor Corbin Coombs of Organ Mountain.
Coombs’ closing sprint down the final stretch of the event put him at 4:06.17, blistering the Class 5A mark set by Gareth Gilna of Los Alamos in 2009.
“I don’t really like to pace, so the goal was to just stay on Charlie’s heels and then just really, really push hard at the end,” Coombs said of his burst that helped create the race of the day for the opening stanza of the Class 4A-5A State Track and Field Championships. The meet finishes Saturday. “That’s my preferred strategy. Charlie Vause is a really good competitor so you’ve just got to try your best and hope it works out.”
Indeed it did work out, but Vause did his best to intervene, meeting Coombs’ initial kick on the far straightaway with a pushback of his own.
“Sure, I suppose it’s frustrating, but you go out and do you what you can,” Vause said. “It’s just a bummer. I thought I was going to hold because I knew exactly how it was going to go down. He’d try to make a move with a lap to go. I knew I had to stay on him and try to hang with him. I let him get away, I guess. It’s all right. Sometimes life’s like that. You live and learn and improve and it’s not always linear.”
Meeting Vause’s retaliatory move was not easy, Coombs said, adding he knew he was right there the whole time
“Oh 100%, I felt him on the back stretch,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, we’re sprinting now? Okay, I’ll try my best.’ That has to be one of the hardest finishes of my life.”
Hoover Middle School eighth-grader Gianna Rahmer, who competes for Eldorado High, had no such drama in her race. The only question would be by how much would she break the 5A girls 1,600 record.
The answer: by nearly four seconds as Rahmer cruised home in 4:54.44, erasing the mark Julia Foster of Albuquerque Academy set in 2010.
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She so dominated the field, that the rest of the runners were barely halfway through the final turn as Rahmer was flexing for the crowd while sporting a powder pink headband that read, “Run like a girl,” as she ultimately won by 25 seconds.
“I had a lot of adrenaline,” she said. “Very excited, obviously. This is state. A big meet and I felt really good. I just went out there and ran as hard as I could. I definitely like my start and my kick at the finish. I think those are two of my greatest superpowers on the track. I felt just really good. It was the perfect weather. The perfect temperature. A perfect day and I got to run with some of my favorite people. It was awesome.”
Rahmer’s effort kick-started a record-setting day, with Rio Rancho’s Arianna Valenzuela popping a 141-foot, 9-inch chuck in the discus to knock out Aztec’s Jessica Ford’s 2003 standard.
“I really have to control my heart beat,” said Valenzuela, who took up throwing only last year after switching from softball. “Go out there, get your job done. Once you get that good throw, you know you’re comfortable in that spot for now. Then you go after it. That’s what my coaches always tell me, ‘Go after it now. Go after it. Stay within yourself but go after it.’”
Valenzuela, who has an appointment to the Air Force Academy, where she will compete in the throws, broke the record twice, going over 138 feet with her second throw before hitting the bomb.
“My goal for myself was 140,” she said. “I was really trying to keep all my mechanics the same, just get a little more up and it happened. It was a breath of fresh air. There was a lot of hard work I put into this season to be where I’m at and that showed that it all paid off.”
Coombs’ 1,600 record was one of two on the day as he also was part of the 4x800 relay squad for Organ Mountain that ran 7:52.91 to break the mark the school set last year.
He credits his teammates Jeron Wisner, Jake Medina and Nohi Leyva with making his anchor leg smooth.
“My teammates really did well on that because they handed it off to me in first,” he said. “I pushed the pace, but my teammates did a really good job on that.”
The 5A Rio Rancho boys 4x100 relay team of Jace Pitt, Parker Miller, Gabriel Luna and Charles Carreathers did a good job as well, putting up a 41.88 mark to tie Cleveland’s 2021 record, while the 4A Los Alamos 4x100 boys quartet of Haiden Jorgenson, Rocco Quintana, Daniel Kim and Melaki Gutierrez went 41:05 to break Albuquerque Academy’s record from last year.
When it comes to Albuquerque Academy, Anna Hastings lived up to her billing as the top seed in the 4A 1,600, running a 5:06.59 for a personal best. It was something she was looking forward to after a disappointment in the event a year ago.
“Last year, I was seeded first and I had a really bad race and it was in my head,” she said. “I was really nervous because of how last year went. So I wanted to try to come back and avenge that a little bit.”
