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Los Alamos’ Laura Wendelberger, center, carries the baton in the 4×100 event at Friday’s Los Alamos Classic track and field meet at Sullivan Field. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
LOS ALAMOS — The Los Alamos girls track and field squad has had a stranglehold on the Class 4A field for the past four seasons — and Laura Wendelberger wants to keep it that way.
In fact, all the Hilltopper seniors do.
“You can see on all the seniors’ faces — they don’t want to be the class that doesn’t win,” said Paul Anderson, coach of the four-time defending state champion Los Alamos squad. “But I always tell them, ‘Come together as a team and the score will take care of itself.’”
And, of course, Wendelberger always heeds the advise her coach — well, sort of.
“Coach’s advice when we ask him how to run an event is also ‘Run fast and turn left,’” she said, laughing. “But I guess when it comes down to it, that’s all track is. So while there is pressure, all we can do is work our hardest at practice. Then, when we get to state, we’ll just have to run our hearts out to make sure it’s a good end for our senior year.”
So far, so good for the mighty ’Toppers, as Los Alamos placed second behind Class 5A Cleveland on Friday in the Los Alamos Classic meet at Sullivan Field.
Wendelberger recorded the fastest time in the 100-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line at 16.60 seconds. Santa Fe’s Madeline Weibe was second, at 17.19. Weibe also was third at 400 meters, with a state-qualifying time of 1:00.57.
Wendelberger’s teammate, Amy Neal, also reached the top of the podium, finishing first in the pole vault by clearing a state-qualifying height of 9-feet-9. The Los Alamos senior, who is headed to the University of Tennessee on a soccer scholarship, is the defending 4A champion at 200 meters, and placed third in the event Friday, at 26.89 seconds. She was followed by Santa Fe’s Tiffany Garcia, at 27.57. And for Neal, she’s also well aware of the expectations placed on her and her teammates this season.
“There’s definitely pressure because we have high hopes — and I know I’m going have to do something in pole vault at state because we need those points,” she said. “But right now, I’m just happy to get qualifying out of the way so I can just work on my form.”
Neal and Wendelberger were also part of Los Alamos’ 800-meter relay team — along with Cassidy Reeves and Hayley Schake — which finished first, at 1:46.83. Santa Fe’s Tiffany Garcia, Kayla Herrera, Shantal Roybal and Akeisha Ayanniyi placed third, at 1:51.53. Wendelberger, Halley Thayer, Celeste Levy and Neal also took first the 400-meter relay, with a time of 50.32 seconds.
Another Los Alamos standout happy to get qualifying out of the way is Jordan Ahlers. The ’Topper senior cleared the qualifying mark in the triple jump with a leap of 33-feet, 4 inches. “It’s a really big year for me and the team,” Ahlers said. “I mean obviously we want to keep our state championship streak going, but I also want to jump in college so there’s a lot riding on this season.
“There’s a lot of good teams out there so it should be a very good battle at state, but I think we can pull it out.”
Santa Fe’s Alicia Pacheco followed in the triple jump with a leap of 32-2 to finish second. Los Alamos’ Sarah Stubben was third, at 31-8. Other top Los Alamos finishers included a troika of runners at 800 meters, including Sophia Galvez, who finished second (2:32.17); Talia Dreicer was third (2:35.00); and Kathryn Stockton, fourth (2:35.84). Los Alamos’ Celeste Levy finished third at 100 meters (13.18).
SANTA FE GOES THE DISTANCE: The Demons Noel Prandoni and Zachary Grand each finished second in his race at 3,200 meters. Prandoni finished behind Malia Gonzales of Cleveland, who crossed the finish line at 12 minutes, 10.09 seconds. Prandoni recorded a time of 12:10.95. Grand (10:06.32) finished behind Cleveland’s Luis Martinez (9:34.22). Prandoni was also second at 1,600 meters, with a time of 12:10.65.
“Noel and Zach ran very well,” Santa Fe coach Peter Graham said. “They both qualified already in the 3,200 … but we still need to get them both qualified in the mile. We were close to qualifying a few more today, so hopefully it will all come together.”
IN THE RELAYS: On the boys side, the ’Toppers were the area’s top finishers in the 400-meter relay, placing second with a team consisting of Xavier Dennison, Dallin Parker, Simon Heath and Gabe Montoya. … The Santa Fe boys placed third in the 800-meter relay, with a team consisting of Marcus Alarid, Dakota Parker, Taylor Cherwinski and Mikey Ditmore. … The Los Alamos 1,600 medley team finish second, at 3:45.99. The team consisted of Arnoldo Ortiz, Skyler Veenis, Alexi Ortega and Skyler McCall. … For the Demonettes, their 1,600-meter relay team finished second behind Cleveland (4:10.70), with a time of 4:18.06. The squad consisted of Weibe, Ivana Romero, Alicia Pacheco and Rachel Sidebottom.
IN THE FIELD EVENTS: Los Alamos’ Seth Drop placed first in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet. The Demons’ Dakota Parke was third at 11-feet-6. … Santa Fe’s Tiffany Garcia took the top spot in the high jump, clearing 4-feet-6. The ’Toppers’ Destiny Fellers also clear 4-6, but finished third due to a larger number of attempts. … On the boys side, Santa Fe’s Johnny Loera placed third, at 40-feet-8-1/2.
