LAMS XC Boys And Girls Teams Shine At Home Meet

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on October 2, 2021
- 8:57 am

The 7th grade boys cheer on their teammates at the finish of the 7th grade girls race. Photo by Blake Wood

The start of the 7th grade girls race. Photo by Blake Wood

By KAY ULRICH
Co-Head Coach
Boys and Girls Cross Country
Los Alamos Middle School

On a beautiful fall afternoon, Los Alamos Middle School hosted seven visiting middle schools at its Cross Country Invitational.

Enjoying a home advantage at their course on the LAPS North Mesa recreation space, all four Los Alamos teams won their team division.

The 1.87 mile (3km) course follows a wide dirt track with the start and finish just below the middle school parking lot. After the first turn, the course sends runners through a shady stand of pines, down, and east from the middle school. It then turns back for a gradual uphill return from the North Mesa baseball fields to complete lap one.

On lap two, a loop extension makes its way to a hilly section, then the final half mile chase back up to the finish line begins.

Alayna Martinez (7th grade girls) and Sam Prada (8th grade boys) took individual wins for the Hawks.

The Girls 7th grade race was first on the program. The Hawk’s Martinez, Alessandra Trujillo, Amelia Hill and Elizabeth Buck distanced themselves as a lead pack by the end of the first 1500m lap.

The Hawks would go on to snag the top four spots with just 15 seconds between them. A strong push to the finish from Martinez allowed her to pull away from her teammates for the win.

In the second lap Ensley Jorgenson and Liv Niklasson passed runners from McCurdy and Memorial (Las Vegas) to earn 5th and 6th place and contribute to a dominating victory in the team race.

The Boys 7th grade race followed. Having to recover from a bad fall at the start, Will Gartz ran with determination to pass every single runner in the race, eventually taking 2nd place to Benjamin Durant of Pojoaque. He was followed by the closely-packed foursome of Gavin Bent, Connor Lattimore, Ian Vest and Kaj Maupin in 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th place respectively.

With a team score of 27 points, the Hawks won handily over El Dorado Middle School (Santa Fe). Which had 110 points and third place Carlos F. Vigil Middle School from Espanola with 120 points.

The Girls 8th grade race was won by front-running Neveah Lovato of Pojoaque.

Los Alamos runners took the next five places.

A fast finish secured 2nd place for Mila Moseley to lead the Hawks. She was followed by teammates Celia Pesiri and Phoebe Reid in an almost-dead heat for 3rd and 4th place. Rounding out the top five for the Hawks were Margo Wulf in 5th and Penelope Barry-Hoffman in 6th place.

The final race of the day saw the Los Alamos 8th grade boys earn a perfect score of 15 points, with the Hawks top 5 runners taking the top five placings. Prada put up a 10-second margin of victory and his next four teammates had strong performances to all finish within 55 seconds of him. Rocco Del Maro was 2nd and Gus Ovaska 3rd. Garrison Sison took 4th place and John Kang was next in 5th position.

The Hawks have the next week off and return for the final race of their season Oct. 15, hosting once again at their home course.

Alayna Martinez and Alessandra Trujillo took the top two places in the 7th grade girls race, in times of 12:58 and 12:59, respectively. Photo by Blake Wood