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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Monarch Is in Rare Sprinting Form

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
      Manzano High's Nick Linden, at 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, isn't a big guy, but he can flat-out run.
       Linden ran a personal-best 10.84 seconds in the preliminaries of the boys 100-meter dash at the City Championships at Milne Stadium on Friday.
       “That was my first state-qualifying time in the 100,” said Linden, a junior from Tijeras. “They got me at 10.84. It was a PR (personal record) for me. My best before was an 11.11. I had a bad start like I usually do, but the last 50, that's when I kick it in.”
       Linden slowed to an 11.11 in the event finals on Saturday and placed sixth. A 10.84 would have put him in third place.
       “My time was better on Friday,” Linden said. “I'm not sure why. ... Maybe my legs were fresher on Friday. I always run faster on the first day (of a two-day meet).”
       Monarchs boys coach Harvey Carreathers was pleased with Linden's qualification.
       “That's the first time in a long time that's happened for us,” the coach said. “We're not known for our 100-meter runners.”
       Manzano, paced by Ryan Gesiakowski's fourth-place finish in the 300 hurdles (40.81), ultimately took eighth overall in the 14-team competition with 11 points. Cibola was the team champion with 136 points.
       Manzano senior Matt Stoltzfus wasn't jumping for joy after Friday's prelims. The Tijeras resident ran the anchor leg of the 400 relay for what appeared, by the naked eye, to be a first-place tie in the first heat.
       “And I did horrible in the (open 400 preliminaries),” Stoltzfus said. “I usually do 50 (seconds), and I was 52 or so (on Friday). I did it (the previous) week, too. It's just mental.”
       Carreathers was upbeat when all was said and done.
       “That's a tough meet for us because we don't have a lot of depth,” he said. “But the kids ran well, and we set some PRs.”
       Monarch Matt Miller didn't make the finals in the shot put and discus. He said he chucked the shot put 42-5 and slung the discus about 125 feet.
       “It was pretty good for me,” said Miller, a 6-4, 280-pound senior from Edgewood. “I've improved a lot from last year when I was throwing 40 (in the shot). Now, I'm at 42. That's nice. And from the beginning of the year, I've improved from the 90s to 125 in the discus.”
       It's all good.
       “It's nice to compete in track,” said Miller, who plans on attending Eastern New Mexico University and pursuing a wildlife science degree. “It's more relaxed than football, but you still get the competitive spirit with it.”
       The Manzano girls, who ran at Wilson Stadium on Friday and moved to Milne on Saturday, finished in ninth place with 15 points, and Cibola earned the team title with 100½. Lady Monarch Monquisha Coleman was crowned as the city champion in the long jump with a leap of 16-10.
       “It was an off week compared to last week,” Manzano girls coach John Flores said. “We were missing five, six runners Saturday (because of) soccer, tutoring, band camp and volleyball. I was missing two sprinters in the relays. We weren't supposed to compete on Saturday. They had commitments. What can you do?”
       The city meet was scheduled for May 1 and 2, but the first day was bumped to Friday because of strong winds.
   

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