PREP TRACK AND FIELD
New Mexico's top prep athletes shine at Harper meet
Cleveland's Espinosa, La Cueva's Kinghorn and Highland's Neal all stand out on Day 1
Albuquerque Academy’s girls and La Cueva’s boys are showing the way at the Richard A. Harper Memorial track and field meet.
The first day of one of the state’s most elite regular-season meets saw the Chargers score 44½ points, with La Cueva (24½) and Los Alamos/Highland (each with 19) in pursuit.
The Bears had a big day in the field events, and a large, talented field, chasing them after a 40-point Friday. Juggernaut Cleveland (29) and 4A power Academy (23) were next in the standings.
Opening day of the Harper, as always, was mostly a day for the field athletes, with 12 of the 14 finals staged on Friday. Only the javelin remains, on Saturday morning. There were only two running finals Friday.
The first of them, the 3,200-meter final, went to Anna Hastings of the host Chargers, and also Lucas Espinosa of Cleveland.
Espinosa ran a season-best time (for him) of 9 minutes, 22.07 seconds, as he outraced Academy’s Nicholas Ponte — who has been the top metro runner in this event this spring — to the finish. Ponte’s time was 9:23.65.
Espinosa was the stronger runner over the final 800 meters after the two were side by side for the majority of the race.
“First and foremost, Nick is a great competitor,” said Espinosa, whose qualifying time for the Harper was 9:36-plus, a time he posted just last week at Sandia Prep’s meet. “Today, I just felt really good going into those last couple of laps. I’m feeling really fit, and I just didn’t want to lose today.”
Hastings dominated, as she’s done pretty much everywhere she’s been this season, winning in 11:02.07, which was 20½ seconds ahead of runner-up Elisabeth McNiff of Los Alamos.
Claire DeFoy of Hope Christian (2:18.33) and Elliot Hickey of Academy (1:56.72) later in the program were winners in the 800-meter final.
The rest of the day on the track was spent on prelims and athletes attempting to get qualified for Saturday’s finals. The Saturday running program begins at 9:30 a.m.
For the host school, it was no surprise that Grace Erinle shined the brightest. The junior who is in the conversation as New Mexico’s top girls track and field athlete, swept the long jump (18-9, winning comfortably and a season-best for her) and the triple jump. Her triple jump mark was 37-4; Academy went 1-2-3 in this event. Erinle also was the top qualifier in the open 100, in a time of 12.27 seconds.
“I honestly feel like the Harper is the second most important meet to state,” said Erinle.
Albuquerque High’s Anayjah Garza was a close second in the 100 prelims to Erinle, and Garza later earned the top qualifying mark in the 200.
La Cueva, as mentioned, had an excellent day in the field events Friday.
Jhett Kinghorn edged Farmington’s Gilberto Quezada in the pole vault, where each cleared 14 feet. They raised the bar to 15 feet, where neither cleared it, but Kinghorn didn’t miss at 14 feet and that was how he won the event.
“I think when I was at this meet my freshman year, I no heighted, so my goal at this meet every year is just to get a height,” Kinghorn said. “I wish I could have gotten 15 (feet), but my eyes are on state.”
Tony Trujillo and Hunter Butler went 1-2 in the high jump, with Trujillo’s 6-6 four inches better than his teammate.
Tanner Montano had his best long jump of the season and finished first on Friday. His top jump this season coming into the Harper was 22-5, but Montano, looking to ramp up ahead of trying to become the solo overall state record holder next month, leapt 23-3½ on Friday.
The La Cueva girls had success, as well. Kate Crowell, following up her win at the recent Sepulveda Meet of Champions, made it a pole vault sweep for the Bears, winning at 11-6, with another La Cueva athlete, Grace Danley, in second place.
Raymundo Lujan of Eldorado was runner-up to Montano in the long jump, and also added another victory in the triple jump (45-10 ½).
Gianna Rahmer of Eldorado, who has only run one meet so far this season as she comes back from a couple of minor injuries, was onsite at Academy on Friday, but was not in uniform.
The sophomore did not have a qualifying time to make her eligible to compete at the Harper, either in the 3,200 or the 1,600, so she is not competing at Academy this weekend.
She is, however, planning to run a meet at St. Michael’s in Santa Fe on Saturday, in the 1,600. The hope is, she’ll meet the qualifying standard which would allow her to be at the Albuquerque Metro Championships next week in the mile.
Rahmer, a multiple state distance champion, is not yet qualified for state in any individual event. She can qualify for the 3,200 at the District 2-5A meet, which is in two weeks.
Shot put winners Friday were Anni Presser of Rio Rancho (36-5½) and Moses Sparks of Cleveland (55-3), who is the latest in a line of Storm shot putters to excel in this event.
“The peanut-butter-and-jelly (aspect),” Sparks said, describing the school’s success in the shot. “Like, the stuff we do every day. It’s the way we go about practice every day, the seriousness of it.”
Sparks is likely to be the 5A favorite at state. This week, he’s also paying attention to the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh.
Sparks, a University of Utah signee, watched Thursday night as two Utes, both of them offensive linemen, were taken in the first round.
“It’s nice, knowing I have a plan to go next year to Utah. Maybe if all the cards go my way, and I work my ass off … I have a plan to (get) to the next level,” said Sparks, an offensive tackle.
Two non-metro athletes, Kael Farley of Piedra Vista (159-8) and Sarah Martis of Los Alamos (115-11), captured discus titles Friday.
Rebecca Neal of Highland and Antonella Begay of Academy both cleared 5-2 in the high jump — four girls, in fact, finished at 5-2, including Crowell — but Neal had the edge on jumps.
Neal is one of those athletes who has a daunting task ahead of her. She is qualified for state in a whopping eight events, but can only do five at the state meet.
“I haven’t decided (which),” Neal said. “It’s difficult to choose which ones to do. You don’t know how to practice.”
Collin Joyner of Cleveland was the top qualifier Friday in both the 110-meter high hurdles (14.38) and 300-meter intermediate hurdles (39.74). Morgan James of Cleveland is seeded first and second, respectively, in the 100 and 300 hurdles in the finals.
James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at .