Wildcats ready for 2-6A meet

ALBUQUERQUE — Today’s District 2-6A track and field meet in Albuquerque offers more than just a chance for the Clovis boys team to repeat as district champions.

For both the Clovis boys and girls, the meet is kind of like the best of both worlds.

It’s one of the two prestigious end-of-season meets, and doing well would mean a lot to both programs, especially the boys looking for that repeat. But, it’s also not the season’s very last meet, so there remain opportunities to notch state-qualifying times, or improve on the old ones, with eyes on the following weekend.

“Our main goal is to win district and to qualify where we haven’t qualified, and for the boys that’s the 800 meters,” Clovis coach Mark Sena said during Thursday’s practice at Clovis High School. “We intend to improve every time that we have, to improve every distance that we have, because hopefully by this time we’re hitting our peak. We’re going to be facing the fastest sprint kids in the state. They’re all in our district. ... So this presents us with a great opportunity for our kids to kind of see where we’re at and run against some quality competition.”

The boys 800-meter team notched a good enough time competing in Amarillo, but that didn’t count toward the New Mexico state meet. So Clovis’ 800 runners just have to transfer those results to the district meet, and a state-qualifying time will be theirs.

“I’m pretty confident,” said Jon Fuentes, one of that 800-meter quartet. “Me and Jerrick Maldonado are right there. We’ve run qualifying times before, just not in a qualifying race. So I’m pretty confident we can do it.”

The Clovis girls are looking to build on their success in last week’s Ross Black Relays, at which they received new state qualifying marks from Mikyla Harkley (400-meter dash), Morgan Edwards (300-meter hurdles), Kameron Kelley (110 hurdles) and Tajvionna Johnson (long jump).

Harkley is still trying to qualify in the 200, something she came about a half-second from doing last week.

The Lady Wildcats also have some qualifying times they’d like to improve. Kiana Chappell came into Ross Black already leading the state with her previous shot put throw of 37-7, and she bested that with a 37-8 1/2 heave last weekend. And Zamaurie Spillman had already qualified for states with her 111-10 discus throw prior to last weekend, but bettered that with her 115-5 fling at Ross Black. They each have two more opportunities to hurl their respective objects even farther.

The Clovis boys, too, are looking to whittle down their already-impressive numbers. It’s a lineup that can get standout performances from just about anywhere.

“Every single event we have somebody good,” said Burgin Foster, who came into last weekend having already qualified in the pole vault, and added the 110-meter hurdles at Ross Black. “We have plenty of depth if we need to move somebody around.”

With all that depth, all that talent throughout the roster, a district repeat could be in the offing.

“It’d be really big,” said Seth Lopez, who posted a state-qualifying time (11.09 seconds) that won last week’s 100-meter dash. “It’d give us a really huge confidence boost going into state.”

“It’d be an awesome feeling,” Foster said. “To repeat would be an amazing feeling,”

“It would mean a lot. It would show that we’ve been working hard,” said Montez Wright, who won the 200-meter dash (22.70) and qualified in the 300 hurdles (:39.96) last weekend.

Success today would perhaps mean the most to Justin Manila, who qualified for this year’s states at Ross Black in the pole vault (12-6), but couldn’t make it to last year’s districts. He had a scheduling conflict and choir practice won out. This time around, Manila is hoping to sing a district championship tune.

“I’m a little nervous, it’s my first one,” he said. “But I’m really confident that I can help us gain points to achieve what we need to.”

Points that could help springboard them to the bigger race next weekend.

“States,” Fuentes said, “are where it’s at.”