PHS boys capture Lovington title

LOVINGTON — Portales High is going into an unexpected spring sports vacation beginning on Monday, but the PHS track boys made their final meet before that a strong one.

The state is shutting down Portales schools for two weeks due to COVID-19 protocols, but the Rams turned in a strong performance on Friday in winning Lovington’s Wildcat Relays.

Portales won 13 of the 20 events, including a sweep of all five relay races, and finished with 116 points to 89 for Lovington in the four-school event. The Rams were the only one of the four schools to be represented in each of the five relays.

On the girls’ side, Artesia dominated with 151 1/2 points. PHS was third with 36.

Coach Quintin Wilson expressed disappointment over the news of the shutdown, fearing his squads might lose some of the gains they’ve been making.

“We’re just now starting to get in shape,” Wilson said. “You can see the difference in the kids. We’re starting to run better times.”

Senior Traise Cain won pole vault competition with a personal-best 14 feet, and also took wins in high jump and the 110 hurdles. Senior Dason Davis was victorious in long jump and the 200, while other wins came from sophomore Michael Riess in the 800 and juniors L.J. Jackson in the 100 and T.J. Salas in triple jump.

PHS scored in everything except the 3,200 and the three throwing events.

Meantime, the Lady Rams’ top performer was freshman Emma Hurren, who placed second in both the 800 and 1,600. The lone win for PHS girls came in the 3,200 relay.

Portales schools are not slated to reopen until May 24. The next meet for the Rams and Lady Rams would be in an event at Clovis on May 25.

Cats, Lady Cats compete in Hobbs — Clovis High’s squads were in Hobbs on Friday for the Pat Henry Invitational, competing against the host school, Carlsbad, Roswell Goddard and Ruidoso.

No official results or team scores were available at press time.

The Lady Wildcats turned in a solid day overall, coach Darrel Ray said, winning three of the four relays they entered and finishing second in the other.

“We still had a couple of handoffs that were a little iffy (on the relays),” Ray said. “But we didn’t have any major catastrophies.”

Senior Camryn Barros broke a Class 5A state record in winning pole vault at 12 feet, 5 inches. Her previous top mark was 11-3.

“She was already leading the state, and now she goes more than a foot higher than that,” Ray said.

Senior Skyler Jordan added wins in shot put and discus for the Lady Cats, while senior Kiara Cox posted victories in the 200 and high jump. Meantime, sophomore Zoe Lynn ran second in the 100 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles.

For the boys, senior Pacer Hill cleared 14-2 in winning pole vault competition, while sophomore Brayden Golden was a winner in both shot put and discus. Also, the Cats posted a state-qualifying time of 3:44.95 in winning the 1,600 medley relay with freshman Joseph Walker, Hill, junior Aiden Johnson and Maldonado.

“We had kind of set some goals this week,” CHS boys coach Mark Sena said. “We wanted to get Pacer over 14 feet again, and for everyone else to just improve.

“We really wanted to try to get that medley time down and see what’s possible down the road. And we did it into a pretty stiff wind.”

The Cats finished second in the 400 and 1,600 relays and third in the 800 relay.

Clovis will host its version of the Wildcat Relays at Leon Williams Stadium on Friday, also to include Artesia, Carlsbad, Lovington and Clovis Christian.