Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales Ram track team members run sprints to begin Thursday's practice at Greyhound Stadium. The Rams will return to the stadium today for the District 4-4A track meet, where the boys team hopes to make it four district titles in a row.
PORTALES — "Not one, not two, not three." Those were famous words by then-Heat signee LeBron James for titles he hoped to win in Miami.
The Portales boys track team is hoping to be that successful at the District 4-4A level. A team win at today's 4-4A meet at Greyhound Stadium would be not one, not two, not three, but four district titles in a row.
"For my last year to be a good four-peat for my district championship, it's gonna be hard, because Hope (Christian is) bringing a lot of kids," Ram senior Julian Tellez said. "As long as we get points in all our relays and individual events, we should pull it off."
Tellez will compete in the 110 and 300 hurdles, as well as long jump, and is the team's first leg for the mile relay. Thus far, he has qualified for state in all but the 300, but can qualify for that event either by hitting the qualifying time of 42.8 seconds or finishing first or second in the district finals.
Tellez, along with the likes of Andrew Villegas, Lesther Andrade Oliva, Julian Urioste and a number of others will look to push the 400, 800 and mile relay teams to victory. Individually, Philip Blidi is "No. 1 or 2" in the state in shot put, while Trevor Rawdon is top 2 in javelin, and Aiden Cabledue is the state's best in pole vault.
On the girls side, Rebekah Christensen is close to qualifying for state in the 110 hurdles, while Lexus Aguirre is close in both the 100 and 200 meter dash. Eighth-grader Kylyie Paden had an impressive week at the Lovington Ross Black Relays last weekend, and should be in the mix during select events at the district championships.
Jessie Campbell, however, was the Portales athlete who stole the show by far for the Rams at the Ross Black Relays, as she was responsible for earning 13 of the girls' 18.5 points last weekend.
Campbell won the high jump with a jump of 5-0, while placing third in the 200 meter dash (28.14 seconds), and fifth in the javelin (115-7). The senior has qualified for state in high jump and javelin, but is within striking distance for the 200.
"We killed Ruidoso (in some of the relays at Ross Black), and they're in our district," Campbell said. "I feel like the momentum from that will shift over and we'll go in strong, confidence-minded and do our best (this weekend)."
For Bachicha and company, this weekend is one last tune-up until next weekend's state meet. In the meantime, however, it's all about districts. Bachicha, like Tellez, believes that Hope Christian, who's bringing 80 athletes to Greyhound Stadium, will be the biggest obstacle standing in the way of another Portales district title. However, he said the others - Moriarty, NMMI and Ruidoso, should all be formidable, as well.
"We're really excited," Bachicha said. "That's great motivation for the kids, as the kids know that this is our last tune-up for state and we want to hit all on cylinders. (Winning district) was one of our goals at the beginning of the year, and it's great to see us getting closer to achieving those goals."
