Rams' Riess takes District 4-4A title

ROSWELL — Portales High junior Michael Riess claimed boys individual medalist honors in Friday’s District 4-4A cross country meet at the New Mexico Military course.

The Rams finished second in team standings behind Lovington while the Lady Rams were third in girls competition, trailing host Roswell Goddard and Lovington. Team scores were unavailable.

Meantime in District 4-5A, hosted by Roswell High at NMMI, Clovis qualified its boys team second and its girls squad third. In both meets, the top three of four teams earned trips to Saturday’s state competition at Albuquerque Academy.

Riess posted a winning time of 16 minutes, 28 seconds to beat out his top competitor, Lovington’s Derrick Castellanos. Senior Evan Carbajal came in fourth for the Rams in 17:20.

The top finisher for the Lady Rams was eighth-grader Aubrey McNeill, fifth in 21:55. Teammate Kadence Reeves was seventh in 22:54.

“Our team has worked very hard and is excited to once again experience state cross country as complete teams,” PHS coach Laura McNeill said.

In 4-5A, freshman Samuel Fuentes led the Wildcats, placing fourth in 16:58. The Wildcats put four runners in the top 10 in the meet.

The individual winner was Hobbs’ Adrian Villegas in 16:33. The Eagles finished with 23 points to 49 for Clovis, 69 for Carlsbad and 74 for Roswell High.

For the Lady Wildcats, freshman Kira Tree was sixth in 22:23 while senior Jazlyn Salazar came in eighth at 22:52 as the Lady Cats finished one point behind Roswell High (57-58) for second place. Hobbs had 32 points, led by individual winner Yisel Palacios with a time of 19:07, while Carlsbad was fourth with 70.

The 4A boys are slated to run at 10:50 a.m. and the girls at 11:35 a.m. on Saturday, while the 5A boys take the course at 2:30 p.m. and the girls at 3:15 p.m.

Lady Cats fall in 5A state soccer — At Albuquerque, the Clovis High girls soccer team saw its season come to an end on Tuesday with a 4-1 loss to host Volcano Vista.

Trailing 2-0 at halftime, senior forward Nevaeh Coronado scored to get the Lady Cats (13-5-1) on the board around 10 minutes into the second half, but the Hawks added a couple of goals to put the match away.

Volcano Vista (12-5-1) posted an 8-5 margin in shots on goal and held a 4-2 edge in corner kicks. Sophomore goalkeeper Aja Gonzales had four saves for the Lady Wildcats.

The Hawks advanced to a quarterfinal match scheduled for Saturday at second-seeded Carlsbad (18-2), which had a first-round bye.