Rams' Riess places second to rival in CHS Invitational
Aug. 30—CLOVIS — Portales High senior Michael Riess has developed a friendly rivalry over the years in cross country and track with Lovington's Derrick Castellanos.
Riess often doesn't often beat his fellow senior, but Castellanos certainly brings out the best in him.
The two ran 1-2 in Friday's season-opening Clovis Invitational at Ned Houk Park, with Castellanos running a time of 17 minutes, 8.0 seconds to Reiss' 17:10.4.
"It was a good way to open the season," Reiss said. "I wasn't really going for any time today. I was just trying to see where I need to improve.
"I'm just glad I could keep up with Derrick."
Castellanos helped Lovington easily win boys team competition with 24 points to 57 for Lea County rival Hobbs. Clovis High came in fourth with 85 points.
Portales did not have a full team with only three runners.
Even though he wasn't targeting a time, Riess said he was happy with how he ran.
"That's my best time on this course in my four years," he said. "I'm pretty happy with that."
Last year, Riess was ninth in Class 4A state competition, while Castellanos came in seventh.
Riess is hopeful he can improve on that, perhaps by a lot.
"I'm going to try," he said. "We'll see, but it's going to be pretty hard."
Junior Sammy Fuentes led the Wildcats' effort, placing fifth in 18:07.01.
"I know he felt like he could've done better, but he's super-hard on himself," CHS coach Liz Ledezma said. "I think he would've done better, but he was coming off being sick."
Hobbs won the girls' team title with 20 points. Hereford was second at 42, while the Lady Wildcats were fourth at 92 and Portales finished fifth at 114.
Hobbs' Bhret Clay was the individual winner in 20:56.83.
"We have four eighth-graders on the (girls') varsity," Ledezma said. "I think you could tell they were nervous."
Eighth-grader Brooke Newcomer led the Lady Cats, finishing 17th in 25:14.27.
"We were pretty surprised by Brooke," Ledezma said.
Portales returns to action on Thursday in the Lovington Invitational, while Clovis' next outing is on Sept. 10 in the Lubbock Christian Invitational.
