Clovis takes West Texas Invite

CANYON — As cross country meets go, Saturday’s West Texas Invite was mostly about quality and not quantity.

The Clovis boys came away with the win, thanks to a 1-2 finish from Jerrick Maldonado and T.J. Gregg, while the girls finished third.

Only four teams competed in each varsity race, with Randall, Palo Duro and Plainview also taking part.

“The teams that were there were good and competitive and gave us a chance to race hard,” Clovis coach Mark Bussen said. “That’s what we needed.”

Clovis scored 24 points in the boys competition, with all seven runners finishing in the top half of the 40-runner field and finishing under 19 minutes. Maldonado crossed the finish line first at 15:58, with Gregg coming in at 16:37.

“The course was wonderful,” Bussen said. “It was a tough course, but it’s got good footing. T.J. and Jerrick ran away with things, but it was competitive overall.”

The remaining Clovis runners all finished in the top 14. Kyle Richardson was fourth (17:36), Kannon Brooks seventh (17:58) and Colin Tomayose 12th (18:41) followed by Alejandro Chavarria (18:48) and Nehemiah Gonzales (18:51).

The Clovis girls took third in team scores with 66 points. Randall ran away with the meet with 20 points, and had the medalist in Anya Gomez.

Annalysse Hamlett was third at 19:49.

“Annalysse, that was the best time of her career,” Bussen said. “She was running third in that field, which was a good field. Randall is really good.”

Shylee Tree (21:20, 12th) and Ali Tree (22:28, 20th) were both top 20 on the day. Also running for Clovis were Odalys Olivas (25:06, 28th), Brittny Albin (25:08, 32nd) and Eva Munoz (28:12, 33rd).

In junior varsity competition, Sage Spade was the medalist at 18:46.

Clovis is off this weekend, and has its pre-district meet Oct. 24 in Carlsbad.

Rams run in Pecos Valley Invite — At Roswell, three Rams had top 10 finishes, led by a third-place by Michael Reiss in the boys race. Brando Guerro was sixth, while Cashlin Fraze took 10th in the girls race.

Portales coach Laura McNeil said she wasn’t sure on team scores, as only the top two teams were announced and individual results were to be send via email in the coming days. But she knew early on it was a good meet for Portales.

“It was 30 degrees, and the cold was a factor,” McNeil said. “For the weather we dealt with, we did very well. Everybody did decrease their time, and it was great.”

Portales is next scheduled to race at Ruidoso Oct. 26.