The Belen cross country team hosted the Adron Gardner Classic on Saturday, welcoming teams from across the state to BHS.
The meet featured all three Valencia County schools as well as Cottonwood Classical, Organ Mountain, Centennial, Las Cruces, Moriarty and Socorro.
Only five schools had enough girls to compete as a team, with Cottonwood Classical finishing in first place with a team score of 22.
Belen finished in second, led by Lisette Sanchez who finished in third place with a time of 21:27.33.
Sofia Castillo was the second Eagle runner to come across the line and finished in fifth place, followed by Los Lunas’ Kiyah Padilla with times of 22:20.40 and 22:23.51, respectively.
Valencia runner Sonja Lopez was the highest finisher for her school, coming in 15th with a time of 24:20.59.
The Jaguars finished in fourth place as a team, with an average time of 26:22.44 and a score of 99 points.
On the boys’ side, it was Organ Mountain who finished in first place after all five scoring runners finished in the top ten of the event.
Los Lunas was the highest ranked Valencia County school, finishing in fourth with an average time of 19:11.63. Micah Sparks was the top runner for the Tigers, finishing in second place with a time of 17:44.80.
Santos Sisneros was the top runner for Belen, coming in 16th as the Eagles finished in seventh as a team.
Sisneros finished the course in 19:00.47 to anchor BHS.
The Eagles had an average time of 20:47.67 with a 4:14 split between the number one and number five runners.
Valencia finished in eighth place with a team score of 177.
Victor Ramirez was the top finisher for the Jaguars, completing the course in 19:36.58 to finish in 22nd place.
The Jaguars had an average time of 20:59.23.
This week, all three schools will be back on the road, with Belen competing in Las Cruces, Los Lunas competing in Santa Fe and Valencia competing at Wingate.
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April 19, 2024
