Clovis boys win at Santa Fe Invitational

SANTA FE — The Cats that stayed together, won together.

Clovis High's top five boys runners all finished inside a 19-second span, giving the cross country team a comfortable margin Saturday afternoon at the Santa Fe Invitational.

"We had all five in the top 12, and at the end of the day that's a pretty good punch," coach Mark Bussen said. "They just ran together the whole race."

Nobody for Clovis was close to medalist Justin Angel of St. Mike's, who finished the 5K course in 17:09. But nobody fell too far behind each other, with John Fuentes finishing fifth at 17:33 and the other four taking spots 9-12.

Pojoaque finished second with 55 points, followed by St. Michael's at 68.

Those finishers were Jose Salas at 17:40, T.J. Gregg at 17:42, Bryce Lynch at 17:46 and Jerrick Maldonado at 17:51.

Bussen said the team has worked well at running together without having to lose pace.

"Sometimes you'll have runners staying together, but they're in the back of the pack," Bussen said. "These boys are all flying and nobody wants to drop off. I think they draw energy from each other. At the end of the day, they're trying to beat the other guy, but they really work together."

For the girls, senior Kelsey McNaughton ran 20:21 and finished third for her third-consecutive meet since finishing sixth in the season-opening Wildcat Relays. No other runner finished in the top 25 for Clovis, but Bussen wasn't disappointed with the 138-point finish for sixth.

"We got there pretty late and the girls didn't get much time to warm up," Bussen said. "The girls really pulled it together and ran hard. We ran a little tired this week. I was pretty pleased with how we ran, given a flat week."

Cora Kenney was the individual winner, finishing in 19:41 to help Taos run away with team honors. The Tigers finished with 35 points, easily outpacing St. Mike's (81) and Santa Fe (103).

Other Clovis runners included in the team score were Avery Arnett (27th, 22:53), Morgan Edwards (31st, 23:10), Layla Waller (33rd, 23:17) and Faith Hays (44th, 24:06). Samantha Castro (46th, 24:33) and Sidney Stratton (48th, 24:59) finished just out of scoring range.

Clovis is off this week, and will resume its season Oct. 5 at Odessa, Texas.