Rahmer, Coombs take 5A cross-country titles

New Mexico’s cross country rock star delivered again on the state’s biggest stage. This time, she also left with an additional medal around her neck.

“This is so fun. Running is supposed to be so much fun, hence the smile and the headband,” Gianna Rahmer said.

The Eldorado High School freshman easily won her second straight Class 5A state championship on Saturday afternoon at Albuquerque Academy, routing the field by 66 seconds.

But she also led the Eagles to the Class 5A team championship on a brisk day at the Academy.

“Definitely the team,” Rahmer said, having been asked which aspect of Saturday was sweeter. “We have worked so hard, even from last year to this year. I’m just so proud of them. Everyone just pushed and gave it their all.”

Rahmer’s winning time was 17 minutes, 34.7 seconds. Mariah Galbraith (18:40.3) of Rio Rancho was second.

Rahmer finished in under 17 minutes last year at state on this same course, but said this week’s wet weather didn’t make the course noticeably slower.

“I think I’m just at a different spot this year, different circumstances,” she said.

Eldorado doesn’t have any seniors, but the Eagles were the top team Saturday, scoring 60 points. The only other Eldorado runner in the top 10 was Camar Dhaouadi, who was ninth.

“They were passing people like crazy at the end,” said Eldorado coach Chokri Dhaouadi. “Middle of the race we were not winning.”

He smiled.

“Love makes miracles,” he said. “At least that’s what I think.”

Rio Rancho (72) and Cleveland (78) also won trophies Saturday.

The state’s most elite boys team, Rio Rancho, had a brilliant finish to their season.

The Rams occupied four of the top six spots, scored 27 points, and beat runner-up Organ Mountain by 40 points. Cleveland was third.

Knights senior Corbin Coombs and Rio Rancho’s Charlie Vause, the defending state champion, staged an exciting duel to the finish line. Those two pulled away over the final mile, and entered the stadium with Coombs a single stride in front.

Vause tried to run Coombs down, but couldn’t, and Coombs won state in a time of 14:49.0. Vause was 1.5 seconds behind.

“Last year, I was fourth, and there were two juniors in front of me with Mateo (Herrera, of Rio Rancho) and Charlie,” Coombs said. “Once track season went really well, it was a big goal of mine to make it happen and I’m super grateful that it did.”

For Rio Rancho, Cody Sullivan was third, Herrera fifth and Alejandro Casaus sixth.

CLASS 4A: Albuquerque Academy swept the team trophies. For the boys, it was their 16th state championship, and first since 2017.

Los Alamos had won five of the last six 4A titles, including the previous three, but the Chargers edged the Hilltoppers 50-54.

“The difference in cross country is always those No. 4 and 5 spots, those kids that hang in there for the last 90 seconds or 2 minutes of the face and fight like mad on the track,” Academy coach Adam Kedge said.

As is often the case with these two, their top five were tightly bunched.

The Chargers were led by individual runner-up Nicholas Ponte (15:34.4).

“It’s been a while for the boys,” Kedge said, adding, “Blue trophies never collect dust, not in the hearts of these kids.”

It wasn’t a long while to wait for the individual champion, Taos’ Judah Daffron, who repeated as the boys 4A winner. With a time of 15:28.8, he finished close to six seconds ahead of Ponte, and he was 34 seconds faster on this course than he was in 202. Billy Romero of Taos was third, and Taos also was third as a team.

Daffron also was the recent champ at the Los Alamos meet, where Academy also was entered.

Junior Addison Julian of Academy was the girls 4A state champion. Her winning time was 18:05.4, which was 10 seconds in front of Moriarty’s Carmen Dorsey-Spitz.

“I feel like it was just belief in myself,” Julian said, “having confidence and running gutsy, just being willing to put myself out there.”

Anna Hastings of the Chargers, also a junior and the 2023 state champion, finished third.

“She’s absolutely awesome,” Hastings said of Julian. “I see how hard she works, she is really just an awesome athlete.”

Those two powered Academy to the team win, 49-62, over Los Alamos.

“To come out here and know that we did it as a team, doing it with these girls, I am so inspired by them every single day,” Hastings said. “We did it where it matters.”

Of note, Los Alamos’ Grace Montoya, the Hilltoppers’ top runner, placed 24th Saturday and outside the top five on her own team. She was second at the Extravaganza on this same course three weeks ago, sandwiched between Hastings and Julian.

Shiprock’s girls finished third.

CLASS 3A: Kate Henderson of Sandia Prep, probably the metro area’s top female runner after Rahmer, finally became a state champion.

Henderson was wobbly and in physical distress as she came down the final 25 to 30 meters. She had a 50-meter lead entering the stadium at Academy for the final 300 meters of the race, but she staggered across the line, and her winning time of 18:15.6 earned her a 3-second win.

Henderson finished third last year, and had a similar tough time on the course at state.

Santa Fe Prep’s girls dominated, winning with 25 points. Pippa Garrett was second behind Henderson (18:18.6). The Blue Griffins also placed fourth with Helen Desmond and fifth with Sophie Bair.

Last year’s 3A champion, Chloe Grieco of St. Michael’s, was third.

Santa Fe Prep swept the top two team spots. The Academy for Technology and the Classics was the runner-up, with 98 points.

Navajo Prep sophomore Elijah English was the boys champion, finishing in 16:08.9. Quin Dry of Santa Fe Prep was next, 13.5 seconds behind.

Navajo Prep and St. Michael’s tied for first, each with 61 points and eight better than third-place Santa Fe Indian. But Navajo Prep gets the blue trophy because its sixth-place runner, in 26th, was better than St. Mike’s sixth, who was 42nd.

CLASS 1A-2A: Olivia Marquez, a freshman at Albuquerque’s Oak Grove Classical Academy, was the state champion for the second straight year, in 19:25.9. Rayann Concho of Laguna-Acoma was 16 seconds behind.

Junior Tagoye Pedro of Laguna-Acoma won the boys race in 15:50.2, Brandyn Encinias of Pecos was runner-up.

McCurdy’s girls (56-70 over Oak Grove) and Pecos’ boys (41-61 over Oak Grove) were the team champions.

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