Top winter moments

Jun. 4—Triumph, tragedy and turmoil.

The winter season had all three elements play out from mid-November into March.

The winter season saw plenty of triumphs, especially if you lived in Las Vegas, N.M., also known as the Meadow City. The town celebrated matching Class 3A boys and girls basketball titles at Robertson, while West Las Vegas brought home its first wrestling team title.

The small town of Ojo Caliente and its surrounding communities suffered a huge loss when Mesa Vista's father/son girls coaching duo — head coach Leonard Torres Jr. and assistant Leonard "Leo" Torrez Sr. — died in January from complications due to COVID-19. The Lady Trojans rallied around their absences to reach the Class 2A quarterfinals in their first postseason appearance in five seasons.

What spring season would be complete without a little controversy?

That happened when St. Michael's placed head boys basketball coach David Rodriguez on leave amid allegations of racism and verbal abuse. It coincided with the Horsemen rally from an 0-10 start to reach the 3A title game — where they lost to the Cardinals — to completed one of the greatest in-season turnarounds in state history.

All of that made for one of the more intriguing winters in recent memory.

Robertson's double-dip

When November rolled around, it was clear Robertson had contenders in boys and girls basketball. Of the two programs, the Lady Cardinals were the clear favorites, as the team returned all of its players from its state runner-up team in 2021 and Mistidawn Roybal had transferred over the summer from Pecos to Robertson.

They lived up to that hype, rolling to a 24-1 record that included the District 2-3A regular-season and tournament titles to secure the top seed for the 3A tournament. Robertson won its last 15 games, and beat district rival Santa Fe Indian School four times in the process.

The last one, though, the 3A title game, the toughest. The Lady Braves rallied from a 25-12 third-quarter deficit to take a 31-28 lead early in the fourth quarter. A closing 9-0 run secured a 37-31 win and the program's second blue trophy in four years — both times against SFIS.

Meanwhile, the boys struggled through some early-season issues that were in large part a result of having all of their starters playing on the state championship football team.

After a 4-5 start, the Cardinals roared over the last 2 1/2 months. They won 19 of their last 20 games to win the team's first state title, beating 2-3A rival St. Michael's 65-56 for the third time in four tries.

For the Horsemen, they overcame a rough start, losing their first 10 games and going 2-12 before winning 14 of their last 17 games. They also withstood the absence of Rodriguez, who was sidelined for the last seven weeks of the season amid an investigation into claims of racism and verbal abuse in January. He was replaced in May by interim head coach Gerard Garcia.

The day the players learned of their head coach's plight, they rallied from an 18-point, third-quarter deficit to the Cardinals at home to win, 61-57, on Jan. 29. St. Michael's lost three games the rest of the way — all to Robertson.

Mesa Vista finds motivation in Torres' deaths

The 2021-22 season started with the promise of a breakthrough for the Mesa Vista Lady Trojans, as a 7-0 start under the Torrezes, who took over the program in 2021.

When the Lady Trojans won the green division at the Ben Luján Tournament in December to improve to 7-0, it proved to be the last time the Torrezes coached the team. Leonard Sr. contracted coronavirus during the tournament, followed by his son days later. They battled for more than two weeks before dying from COVID-19 complications within hours of each other on Jan. 14 and 15.

Buoyed by the lessons learned from the coaches and the outpouring of support from around New Mexico, the Lady Trojans struggled through the rest of the regular season, going 11-8, but earned the 10th seed in the Class 2A State Tournament. They made a spirited run, upsetting No. 7 Santa Rosa in the opening round and putting a scare into eventual state champion Clayton in the quarterfinals before losing, 51-43, to end the season at 19-9.

With most of the roster returning and interim head coach Jesse Boies now the official head coach, the Lady Trojans will be a force to reckon with in 2022-23 and will have the Torrezes in their hearts and minds.

West Las Vegas takes first wrestling crown

When Juan Montaño took over the Dons program in 2015, it was an afterthought in Class 1A/3A. It took six years, but he turned it into one of the class's best — and its best in 2021-22.

With four wrestlers winning individual titles and five more taking third place in the consolation bracket, West Las Vegas outpointed Socorro, 189-180, to take the final 1A/3A title. The class will be absorbed into 4A, making just two classes in the state starting in 2022-23.

It represented the first boys state title for the school since the baseball team won it all in 1978.

Individually, Santa Fe High senior Elijah Martinez overcame the pain of losing the 5A 182-pound title in 2021 by dominating Los Lunas' Daniel Torres, 9-2, to cap an undefeated season. Capital ended a four-year championship drought when underdog Roman Ulibarri wrestled his way from the fifth seed to the 5A 120-pound title, beating Rio Rancho's Roberto Cordova by a 7-4 score in the finals.

Pecos' Derik Ortiz won his third straight championship, beating Socorro's Caden Moreland, 4-3, in the 195 final.

Los Alamos, St. Michael's, Santa Fe Prep swim to titles

There was more hardware handed out to Northern swimmers in the Albuquerque Academy Natatorium, and even a few team trophies. The Los Alamos boys won the State Swimming and Diving Championships on the strength of five first-place finishes, including two from senior Orion Henderson (the 200-yard individual medley and 500 freestyle). The Hilltoppers' 338 points was 101 more than runner-up Albuquerque Eldorado.

The small-school titles went to St. Michael's (boys) and Santa Fe Prep (girls, in a repeat performance).

Individually, Santa Fe High celebrated a state champion in sophomore Daschel Bonners-Turner, who took the 50 freestyle in 21.94 seconds, just .03 ahead of Los Alamos junior Ming Lo.