Lady Cats finish second in District 4-5A track meet

ROSWELL – Clovis High’s girls scored in everything except long jump, the 100 and the 200 on Friday to claim second place in District 4-5A track competition.

The Lady Wildcats finished with 81 points, well behind first-place Hobbs with 133 but comfortably ahead of Roswell High (47) and Carlsbad 42.

Meantime, the CHS boys were third with 60 points, behind Hobbs (110) and Roswell High (85 ½). Carlsbad tallied 47 ½ points.

Junior Gabrielle Foggie, the defending Class 5A girls state champion in the 400, ran a season-best time of 57.56 seconds to win it on Friday. Other firsts for the Lady Cats were posted eighth-grader Joanna Miranda in pole vault (8 feet, 6 inches), freshman Brooke Newcomer in the 3,200 (12 minutes, 59.88 seconds), senior Madison Aucutt in the 100 hurdles (17.56) and the 400 relay team (1:52.94) of junior Jori Mondragon, senior Mackenzie Roche, Foggie and freshman Skye Karoki.

The Lady Cats had multiple placers in several events, including Miranda and fellow eighth-grader Ellie Morris (second at 8 feet) in pole vault.

“I was really proud of how the girls competed,” Lady Cats coach Avery Rasher said. “We had a lot of PRs (personal records), especially our 4-by-1 and our 4-by-4 (4:12.14), both of whom qualified for state.”

Eighth-grader Roselia Morales (5:54.95) finished second in the 1,600 and qualified for this week’s state meet at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Meantime, the Wildcats got a season-best 50-5 ¾ and 49-6 in shot put from seniors Jeremiah Johnson and Aiden Brown, who went 1-3 in the event. Senior Kash Roberts also had a strong meet, winning the 200 in 23.14 seconds and helping three relays earn second-place finishes.

“I felt like we had a chance to contend for second place, but things didn’t fall right for us,” CHS boys coach Mark Sena said. “Roswell did an outstanding job in the field events, especially the jumps.”

Junior Sammy Fuentes added a win for the Cats in the 1,600 (4:38.32), while junior Victor Gorostieta placed third in both the 1,600 and 3,200. Clovis also won the 1,600 medley relay in 3:47.61, with Kyrese Phillips, Seven Chapman, Santiago Verdugo and Kyden Everett.

Roswell High went 1-2 in high jump and long jump, and also won the triple jump.

“We didn’t have a good enough response to that,” Sena said. “We did a good job of running in the relays. We competed as hard as we could.”