Lady Rams second, CHS squads third at Artesia
Apr. 25—ARTESIA — Portales High's girls nearly won Friday's Artesia Invitational track meet, falling one point short in a 12-school field.
The Lady Rams tallied 75 points to 76 for St. Michael's, with Clovis High third at 56. Meantime, the Wildcats were third on the boys' side with 66 points, trailing the host Bulldogs (89) and Carlsbad (84), while PHS finished seventh with 27 points.
"The girls had a very good meet," PHS coach Quintin Wilson said. "Everybody ran well. There were so many PRs (personal records), we must be doing something right."
Senior Emma Hurren won the 800 (2 minutes, 26.42 seconds) and finished third in the 1,600 (5:52.45) for the Lady Rams, while Savana Heflin took second in the 100 (12.85), a state-qualifying mark.
Clovis and Portales went 1-2 in three girls relays, the Lady Wildcats winning in the 400 and 800 relays while the Lady Rams took the 1,600 relay. Portales also ran second in the medley relay.
The Lady Cats got wins from sophomore Gabrielle Foggie in the 400 (59.74) and Amanda De La Rosa in javelin (109-0).
"We didn't have a very good meet," CHS girls coach Darrel Ray said. "A lot of little things happened, and we probably left 15 points out there.
"We tried a couple different things. Gabby (Foggie) had a pretty good day, and Amanda's throw (in javelin) was her second-best of the year."
Wilson opted to rest senior Michael Riess (distances) on the boys side. Meantime, junior Manny Chavez threw 173 feet, 7 inches to win javelin competition while sophomore Xavier Tarpeh (19-11 1/2 ) finished a close second to CHS senior R.J. Nora (20-0 3/4 ) in long jump.
Nehemiah Yorfee took third in boys shot put (45-8), sandwiched between Clovis' Jeremiah Johnson (46-3), Gregorio Cordova (45-0 1/2 ) and Brayden Golden (44-1), who went 2-4-5.
"Nehemiah threw well," Wilson said. "He's worked hard in shot put, and it paid off for him."
Nora won three events for the Cats, adding the 110 (14.50) and 300 hurdles (39.59) to his win in long jump. Clovis was without its top distance runner in sophomore Sammy Fuentes.
"We did pretty well," Cats coach Mark Sena said. "We knew we didn't have Sammy. We ran some guys in different spots today to see what we have."
Junior Kaleb Foggie ran a personal best 11.44 seconds in the 100 to take second place. Meantime, the Cats won the 1,600 relay (3:27.79), finished second in the 800 relay (1:32.34) and took third in the 400 relay (43.91), with Foggie running on all three.
Clovis and Portales return to action on Friday in Lovington's Ross Black Relays, the final meet before district competition next week.
