Cats second behind Nora

PORTALES - Clovis High senior R.J. Nora likes where he is as the track season moves towards Class 5A state competition in May.

Nora claimed wins in triple jump, long jump and the 110 hurdles on Friday to help the Wildcats eke out a second-place finish in Portales High's George/Love Invitational at Greyhound Stadium.

Hobbs swept both team titles, with the Cats coming in one-half point ahead of Roswell Goddard for second place (53-52 1/2). Led by junior Michael Riess, PHS was sixth in the 12-school competition with 41 points.

Meantime, Clovis earned a third-place standing on the girls' side with 57 points, trailing the Lady Eagles (97) and Artesia (76). The Lady Rams were sixth with 39 points.

Nora jumped a season-best 44 feet, 10 1/2 inches in triple jump on Friday, winning by exactly four feet over runnerup Jaison Hicks of Roswell High. He went 20-5 3/4 in long jump and clocked 15.31 seconds in the hurdles.

"I was really surprised (by the triple jump)," said Nora, who missed the Cats' previous outing in the Canyon Invitational. "For my first time jumping in about two weeks, it was pretty good.

"Right now, I think I'm in a good position. I have to work on my form in the jumps and the hurdles."

Nora also ran a leg on the Cats' 400 and 1,600 relays.

"I enjoy the relays," he said. "That's what I kind of started off doing."

Junior Gregorio Cordova added another win for the Cats in shot put (42-9 1/2).

"We got better, looked better," Cats coach Mark Sena said. "We finally got a nice weather day. We had a successful day as far as people running their bests."

Reiss had comfortable margins in the 800, which he ran in 2 minutes, 1.44 seconds, and the 1,600 (4:36.12).

"I'm really pleased with our kids," PHS coach Quintin Wilson said. "We're really young, and they're starting to believe in their conditioning."

Senior Kylyie Paden won her main events on Friday for the Lady Rams, outlasting Clovis junior Madison Parkin to win with fewer misses after both cleared 10-6 in pole vault and then adding a first-place finish in high jump at 5-3.

Like Nora, she's working on bigger things down the line after winning the Class 4A pole vault title last spring at 10-7 and finishing second in high jump at 5-2. She lost out in the latter event to Los Alamos senior Bailey Yost based on misses.

In Friday's pole vault event, she came close in a bid to go 11 feet.

"I'm glad I (had a season-best) in high jump," said the 6-foot Paden, who is headed to Angelo State for volleyball and track in the fall. "In pole vault, I cleared (11 feet) completely, but my pole knocked (the bar) off.

"My goal is to get first in both (at state). I want to get 11-6 in pole vault, and my goal (in high jump) is to clear at least 5-5."

Olivia Low added a second-place finish for the Lady Rams in discus (100-5 1/2), good enough to qualify her for state competition.

In addition to Parkin's strong showing in pole vault, the Lady Cats got wins in the 800 and 1,600 relays, and finished second in the 3,200 relay. The Lady Cats qualified their 800 relay for state while falling a bit short in the 1,600.

Clovis and Portales have several athletes set to compete in Monday's Marilyn Sepulveda meet in Albuquerque, and both teams will be in Thursday's Wildcat Relays at Leon Williams Stadium.

Area Texas schools compete - Farwell and Bovina, already in postseason competition, decided to try their hand against mostly bigger schools in the meet. Both competed in Texas Class 2A district competition last weekend and are preparing for the area meet this week.

Farwell's girls notched a fourth-place tie with Dexter, scoring 43 points, while the Fillies tallied 10 points to place 11th.

Kadey Urbantke posted a win in the 1,600 for the Lady Blue, running 5:49.30, while Bovina's Faith Gonzales was second in that event (6:08.37) and third in the 3,200 (12:37.78). Farwell also got runnerup finishes from junior Jaelyn Smith in shot put (32-4 1/2) and freshman Kennedi Richey in the 800 (2:31.35).

For the boys, Farwell was seventh with 36 1/2 points and Bovina ended up 10th with 16. Miguel Lopez won the 400 in 51.76 for the Mustangs, while their 1,600 relay was second to Moriarty in 3:38.66.

Meantime, the Steers grabbed five runnerup finishes, including two by junior Alec Actkinson in the 110 and 300 hurdles. Garrison Haseloff was impressive in pole vault, going 13-2 to place behind Artesia's Brian Benge (13-6), while Zach Benoit in long jump (20-3) and Ryder McElroy in discus (123-4) were second in those events as well.