Cleveland's Espinosa, Eldorado's Rahmer set course records at opening meet

RIO RANCHO — Records broken? Try records shattered.

On Saturday at the 2025 Macen Holderman Memorial Cleveland Invitational, the Storm’s Lucas Espinosa and Eldorado’s Gianna Rahmer set new course records, both eclipsing the past times by 15 seconds or more.

It was business as usual for Rahmer, who won for a third time at this event. The sophomore finished in a blazing 17 minutes, 37 seconds, breaking her own course record from 2024 (18:02).

As a team, Eldorado would finish sixth overall on the girls side, with Durango High (Colorado) taking the top spot. The out-of-state talent kept Rahmer company for most of the race before she pulled away.

Cleveland was second and Rio Rancho third.

Eldorado head coach Chokri Dhaouadi stated that he encourages Rahmer to focus on the enjoyment of the sport.

“She’s still young, 16 years old,” Dhaouadi said. “So usually I tell her to go out and have fun, just enjoy the race.”

Unfortunately for her opponents, going out and having fun means smashing records.

“I just keep pushing myself to be better than I was in the last race, but I don’t feel that much pressure,” Rahmer said. “As I talk to my coach and all my people around me, there’s more to me than just a runner. So running races is super fun, but pushing myself is the fun part.”

On the boy’s side, Espinosa took the all-time course honors with a 15:05 finish, besting Rio Rancho’s Cody Sullivan, who ran it in 15:23 last year.

“(I am) ecstatic,” Espinosa said. “I got the course record back for my school, on my home turf. First meet of the season, it feels pretty good.”

Espinosa said he started the race with his mind set on getting the course record.

“Our crosstown rivals got it from us on our own course, and I didn’t want that to stand,” he said.

Despite Espinosa’s act of revenge, it would be the Rams with the final laugh, placing first in the team standings, while the Storm finished third. La Cueva came in second.

A handful of Rams put up competitive times to secure the win, including a fourth-place finish from junior Alejandro Casaus.

“Storm coach (Kenny) Henry puts on a good event, and so we’re appreciative,” Rio Rancho head coach Phil Keller said in the lead-up to the meet. “It’s early, it’s quick. I think it shows, more than anything, which team, which program, which athletes, put in the summer work.”

Keller has been vocal about this year being a “changing of the guard,” with the Rams having graduated a lot of last season’s top runners. But in the season opener, the Rams showed they still mean business.

The next big local cross country meet is the Lobo Invite, set for Sept. 13.

“I just want to keep getting faster and faster than I was last year,” Rahmer said. “Keep building my team to be a state champ, and just keep building all the other girls around me.”