The Cross Country teams recently ran in the Rio Rancho Jamboree. This is the biggest meet all year with 2,300 runners registered, and the first time we have been able to attend. We were limited on the number of runners we could enter this meet since we had a good amount of band members who were unable to run because they were competing at the BOA in Las Cruces. For this reason, we moved up some JV runners to run for varsity and they did a great job.
"This is by far the hardest course in the state and the kids had to run up steep sandy hills for half of the race," Coach Ledezma said. " I try to run all the courses before the kids run so I can tell them what to look out for in the race and this one was even a struggle for me.
"During the course preview, we all felt the elevation in our lungs and we struggled with the sand," she continued. "We set a game plan and went to work on Saturday."
"I like entering the kids in a couple of hard meets so they can push themselves and learn what we need to work on before we go back for the Extravaganza next month. I know a lot of the runners were frustrated with their performance, but in the end it was a training day for us and we learned a lot. It's fun to win, but we won't get better unless we challenge ourselves by running with the best in the state. No matter the place, we are always proud of our Wildcats and future Wildcats!"
Here are the results for the Rio Rancho Jamboree.
Varsity Boys - 17th Place out of 32 Teams - 181 Runners
Athlete of the race: Marques Lippman for pushing the pace.
Varsity Girls - 7th Place out of 26 Teams - 146 Runners
Athlete of the race: Lillian Strebeck for placing top 10.
JV Boys - 8th Place out of 43 Teams - 220 Runners
Athlete of the race: Moroni Steele for pushing the pace.
JV Girls - 11th Place out of 33 Teams - 149 Runners
Athlete of the race: Sophia Alcaz for attacking the hills.
MS Boys - Yucca 24th place / Gattis not enough to score- 482 Runners
Athlete of the race: Silas Baca for having grit.
MS Girls - Not enough runners - 387 Runners
Athlete of the race: Milena Viola for running with grit.