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Bears Dominate

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

Bears Dominate

By Glen Rosales /
For the Telegraph
      On the breezy, high-desert plains where pinto beans once dominated the economy, the Estancia High track and field teams left little doubt about who owned this year's Bean Valley Conference Meet.
       The host Bears boys, sparked by an influx of talent from the baseball diamond, got a measure of revenge over Santa Rosa and the rest of the eight-team field with a convincing 41-point margin of victory on Saturday.
       Meanwhile, the Estancia girls are setting their sights on a state championship after a dominating performance, with the Lady Bears carting off eight gold medals as they lapped an 11-team field.
       The Mountainair boys also turned in a noteworthy performance, finishing a close third, just five points behind runner-up Santa Rosa.
       The East Mountain girls, with just six athletes, also served notice that they can be tough with a fifth-place finish, again, just five points out of fourth.
       But the story of the day was the way the Bears frolicked at their own meet.
       “This was pretty important because it's our hometown meet and stuff,” said Estancia freshman Erin Thomas, who shared high-point honors with her teammate, junior Kaiya Coburn, with both earning 19 points. “It was really exciting.”
       Thomas took home the gold in the 200-meter dash, got a silver in the long jump and helped the 1,600 medley and 400 relay teams to first-place finishes as well. Coburn won the 100 hurdles and the high jump and also was involved in two gold-medal relay teams.
       A stiff wind hampered the efforts of all the competitors.
       “As soon as I hit that straightaway, it was really tough,” Thomas said of her sprint in the 200. “That wind just stopped me like a brick wall.”
       Bear Robin Jones, who turned in some strong performances on each of the relay teams, wasn't too fond of the wind, particularly since she had to twice run a 400, once in the medley and once in the 4x400.
       “I didn't like it, especially on the long races,” she said. “It hit me right as I was coming off the turn, right about the point where it hurts.”
       Not too much was hurting Bears girls coach Laci Lockwood.
       “I'm very happy with how they performed,” she said. “The BVC is a meet we focus on every year. It's our home meet, and our goal is to win it.”
       Winning it in such dominating fashion, with a 143-66 differential over Santa Rosa, was more than even Lockwood could have hoped.
       “I had expectations of winning,” she said. “But we very much exceeded all of the expectations I had.”
       That's a good omen for the rest of the season, Lockwood said.
       “That makes me feel real confident for the District (8-2A) and state meets,” she said.
       Bears boys coach Troy Coburn also is feeling pretty confident about the rest of the season.
       “We did very well,” he said. “We were expecting a pretty tough meet from Santa Rosa after they beat us at their place. With district and state coming up, this will help our confidence.”
       EHS senior David Ortiz isn't lacking confidence after getting gold medals in the high and triple jumps and taking the silver in the long jump.
       “I did better than I thought I would,” Ortiz said. “It was pretty exciting. It was a good jumping day. ... All my field events were first, and right away I did well in all three.”
       Ortiz also helped the 4x200 relay take first en route to 23 points, which left him tied for high-point honors with Mountainair senior Vincent Zamora. Zamora won the long jump as well as both hurdles events.
       “I just never know what (Ortiz is) going to do next,” Troy Coburn said. “He just keeps getting better and better.”
       Even better than garnering the high-point accolade, however, was beating up on second-place Santa Rosa in a 133-92 rout.
       “It's always a rivalry with Santa Rosa,” Ortiz said. “They beat us there, but we got them here. It's easier at our place because we don't have to ride the bus. We can just go for it.”
       Coburn liked the way his athletes did just that.
       “It was real important for us to win this meet,” he said.
       The Bears pole vaulters turned in a stellar effort, earning 16 points. Garrett Watkins soared 11 feet in the event and qualified for state, and his teammates, Hugo Wester, Russell Stockton and Matthew Hibbs took third, fourth and fifth.
       Mountainair's Mathew Chavez, meanwhile, added to Zamora's totals, by taking first in the javelin and the shot put. He also was second in the discus.
       The Zamora-Chavez duo combined for 42 of the Mustangs' 87 points.
       Perhaps even more impressive was the performance of the Lady 'Stangs as they grabbed 29 points for sixth place with just 10 athletes, and East Mountain topped that by scoring 35 with six competitors for fifth.
       “It wasn't too bad,” Mountainair girls coach Tammy Zamora said. “I was kind of surprised. We probably could have done better if I had somebody in the field events.”
       The surprising Lady Timberwolves have to take the less-is-more award. East Mountain's Taylor Hale won the 400 dash for EMHS.
       “It was her best race of the year,” said T'Wolves coach Therese Dorwart. “She had a great race. She was just a great competitor in that race. It was really exciting for her to experience that first place.”
       East Mountain's Georgia Kaufman did yeoman's work, taking second in the 3,200 run and third in the 1,600. Then she came right back and ran in the 4x400, helping her team finish third.
       “She just loves to run,” Dorwart said of Kaufman. “She loves to get out there and compete and she loves to be a part of it.”
       Dorwart was smiling.
       “It think it was quite an accomplishment to go fifth in a meet like this when we only had six girls,” the coach said.
       Moriarty Quad
       The Pintos boys and girls both won their home quadrangular on April 24, respectively with 133 and 173 points. Though formally called the Moriarty Quad, five teams actually participated at the competition with the Roswell High boys and girls finishing in second with 90 and 89 points.
       The Pintos boys earned nine gold medals. They won three of the four relays, and Moriarty's Jason Tidwell was first in both the 300 hurdles (43.81 seconds) and the pole vault (9 feet, 6 inches).
       “David Varady has qualified for state in the 100 (dash), Taylor Allcorn has qualified in the long jump and triple jump, and we've qualified in the 4x200 and 4x400,” Moriarty coach Joe Bailey said. “We're very close in the 4x100, and Hayden Fischer is close in the shot put, within a foot.”
       Varady won the gold medal in the 100 on April 24 in 11.10. Fischer took the javelin (144-7).
       The Lady Pintos earned 13 gold medals, including in all four relays. Jayci Manning took the 200 dash (26.74) and the long jump (16-9¼).
       Manning has qualified for state in the long jump, Angel Laue has met the state-meet standard in the triple jump, and Madeline McKenzie qualified in the shot put so far this season.
       “We're also on the verge of getting in the 4x200, 4x100, really all of our relays, and Madeline McKenzie in the discus,” Bailey said. “Also Manning in the 400 (dash).”
       The Estancia boys and girls, the sole small-school representatives at the meet, both placed third with 79 and 70 points. Lady Bear Sabrina Lee won the girls 800 run (2 minutes, 36.80 seconds), and Brittany Falconer, the reigning Class 2A state girls champion, was first in the pole vault (matching the boys' gold-medal clearance at 9-6).
       Peter Romero and Ortiz paced the EHS boys. Romero was first in the 400 dash (57.04), and Ortiz took the triple jump (42-2¼).
       Manzano
       The Lady Monarchs took eighth place with 19¾ points at the Richard Harper Memorial Track and Field Meet at Albuquerque Academy on Friday and Saturday. Manzano's Monquisha Coleman won the 200 dash (25.64).
       The Monarchs boys finished in 10th place with 13 points. Cibola was the boys team victor with 117 points, and La Cueva was first in the female competition with 90¾ points.
   

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