Amy Finn leapt 13’10” in the long jump at the Cleveland Storm Relays. Photo by Blake Wood

Sophomore Koen Christensen ran a State Qualifying time of 4:32.84 in the 1600 m at the Cleveland Storm Relays. Photo by Blake Wood

By BLAKE WOOD
Assistant Coach
LAHS Track and Field

It was a big week for the Hilltopper Track & Field teams, competing at the Cleveland Storm Relays on Friday, April 10 and the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions at UNM on Monday, April 13. 

The Cleveland Storm Relays is a unique meet that requires teams to compete as relays for each event, so that usual individual events (for example, the 3200 m) are scored on the average time for a team’s top-3 finishers.  The traditional relay events are run as usual, for example, the 4×200 m relay.  With this format, the ‘Topper Girls won the meet with 130 points to Cleveland’s 119, ahead of 10 other schools. The Hilltopper Boys placed 4th overall, finishing only behind strong 5A programs (Cleveland, La Cueva, and Alamogordo) – a great showing against top-tier competition.

In the Girls competition, the 4×200 m relay team of Margaret Steinkamp, Jayden Burns, Chloe Coffey, and Evangelina Gutierrez won the event in a time of 1:43.02, which puts them at #4 on the all-time LAHS season best list.  That time is only about a half second off the current Class 4A State Championship record!  The same four girls ran the 4×400 m relay against the best 5A squad in the state, and came away with another victory in a time of 4:02.31, which is a new LAHS #7 all-time performance! 

Raina Passalacqua had a spectacular individual performance in the 300 m hurdles.  Her time of 47.52 is a new PR by almost a second, is an LAHS #10 all-time best, and easily qualifies her for the State Championship on May 15-16. 

Additional meet champions included the high jump relay (Iris Purtzer, Raina Passalacqua, and Zoe Romero), the 3×1600 m relay (Elisabeth McNiff, Emmeline Keller-Moore, and Caterina Mereghetti), and the 3×3200 m relay (Abigail Swigert, Grace Montoya, and Cara Gauss).

In the Boys competition, the 4×100 m relay team of Ewan Arnold, Rylee Gramer, Chris Teague, and Jens Wald-Hopkins placed 3rd in a blazing time of 42.65 seconds.  This is the #3 all-time performance in the LAHS record books.

Sophomore Koen Christensen ran an outstanding individual time of 4:32.84 in the 1600 m to to qualify for next month’s State Championship.  Koen has now qualified in both the 1600m and 3200m – a remarkable accomplishment from the young distance star!  

The 3×3200 m relay team of Emmitt Tibbitts, Kaj Maupin, and Cole Luscher were event champions over several strong 5A schools.

The following Monday, a select number of Hilltopper athletes competed in the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions at UNM.  To qualify for this meet, athletes need to have posted a top-10 performance in their event across all school size classifications in New Mexico.  These select ‘Topper athletes rose to the occasion – nearly all of them posted marks qualifying them for next month’s State Championship, and many achieved season-best or personal-best performances.

Competing for the Boys were Jens Wald-Hopkins in both the 100 m and 400 m (State Qualifying SQ in both, a PR of 49.26 seconds in the 400), Gus Ovaska in the 800 m (SQ and a season-best of 1:59.32), Cole Luscher in the 1600 (4:40.26), Rylee Gramer in the 110 m hurdles (SQ time of 16.20), and Patrick Montoya in the high jump (SQ mark of 6′).

Sarah Martis achieved the sole Hilltopper event win with her 1st place throw of 122’11” in the discus, way beyond the State Qualifying standard.  Jayden Burns broke her own sophomore school record in the 400 m with a blazing 2nd place finish in 57.24 seconds – also the #2 all-time LAHS performance in this event!  The quartet of Elisabeth McNiff, Ensley Jorgenson, Emmeline Keller-Moore, and Abigail Swigert all ran State Qualifying times in the 3200 m.  Elisabeth’s 2nd place finishing time of 11:29.03 is the #9 all-time LAHS performance. Also competing for the Hilltoppers were Evangelina Gutierrez in the 100 m (SQ time of 12.68), Raina Passalacqua in the 100 m hurdles (SQ time of 16.50) and high jump, Iris Purtzer in the high jump (SQ jump of 5′), and Arianna Galvez in the pole vault (SQ jump of 9′).

Next up, the Hilltoppers compete at the Chile Invitational at Sandia Prep on Saturday, April 18.

Patrick Montoya achieved a State Qualifying high jump of 6’2″ at the Cleveland Storm Relays. Photo by Blake Wood

Jayden Krupp leads off the 1600 medley relay at the Cleveland Storm Relays. Photo by Blake Wood

Ezra Kozimor jumped 10′ in the pole vault at the Cleveland Storm Relays. Photo by Blake Wood

Caterina Mereghetti was part of the winning 3×1600 m team at the Cleveland Storm Relays, running a time of 5:44.49. Photo by Blake Wood