Portales sweeps Jim Love Relays

STAFF REPORT

It was a good day for Portales track and field as both the boys and girls took first place in Friday’s Jim Love Invite at PHS.

The Portales boys team finished with 173 1/2 points, nearly 100 more than second-place Dexter (78 1/2).

The Rams had 12 first-place finishes, including nine individual wins. Sophomore Julian Tellez and junior Trenton Small won multiple events, with Tellez winning the 110 and 300 hurdles races with times of 16.90 and 44.49 and Small sweeping shot put, discus and javelin with distances of 47 feet, 8 inches, 123 feet, 8 inches and 145 feet, 7 inches, respectively.

Other winners for the Rams were Julian Urioste in high jump with a height of 5 feet, 8 inches, Jesse LeMier in pole vault with a height of 12 feet, 6 inches, Adrian Short with a distance of exactly 19 feet in long jump and Jose Salomon in triple jump with a distance of 38 feet, 1 1/2 inches. The Rams also won the 400, 800 and 1,600 relays with times of 45.87, 1:40.37 and 3:40.76, respectively.

Freshman Alex Zangara, Dora’s only boys entrant, won the 3,200 run with a time of 10:44.76 to round out Roosevelt County victories and give the Coyotes seven team points.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales’ Jesse LeMier pole vaults a height of 12 feet, 6 inches for the first place height in Friday’s Jim Love Invite at PHS. Portales captured both team titles in the event.

Portales coach Glenn Johnson was happy with the results of the meet.

“I was very pleased with the way that both the boys and girls competed in this one,” Johnson said. “This was the best meet we’ve had to date. We spoke after the meet on how we want to get better and improve from here on out as we prepare for district and state. One of the big things I saw was the competitiveness from a lot of our young runners on both the boys and girls. (Jasmine) Valenzuela ran on our 4x400 and that was a personal record for our relay team.”

It wasn’t just the runners that Johnson noted impressed him.

“I was pleased with our pole vaulters,’ he said. “We have three girls that have qualified for state in the pole vault: Hannah Cabeldue, Trinity Staugaard and Oliva Austin. Trenton Small has thrown qualifying throws in the last two meets and the girls 4x100 has qualified for the state meet.”

On the girls side, the Lady Rams finished with 128 points, besting second-place Artesia by 38.

Portales won nine total events, including five individual wins and a sweep of the four relay races. Senior Amanda Schmidt won in shot put with a distance of 32 feet, 6 inches and senior Hannah Cabeldue won the pole vault with a height of 10 feet.

Sophomore Trinity Staugaard won the 300 hurdles with a time of 52.45, sophomore Jessie Campbell was first in high jump with a height of 4 feet, 8 inches and freshman Abree Aldaz captured the 200 with a time of 28.88.

The Elida Lady Tigers and Dora Lady Coyotes finished with 17 and four points, respectively. Neither of those squads won any events, but Elida freshman Madison Ferguson placed second in the 100 hurdles with a time of 18.26 while senior Lauren Stone took third in high jump and sixth in the javelin with scores of 4 feet, 6 inches and 85 feet, 8 inches, respectively.

Elida junior Taylor Epps placed fourth and Dora senior Lindsey Fletcher was fifth in javelin with distances of 94 feet, 8 1/2 inches and 90 feet, 4 1/2 inches.