Epic performances on final day of the Great Southwest Classic

It was, in a way, a record-setting day for several New Mexico athletes as the Great Southwest Track and Field Classic came to a close Saturday.

Two Santa Fe High athletes, Bryce Melton and Valin Wittenburg, and also Cleveland High hurdler Morgan James, all posted marks Saturday at the University of New Mexico complex that were better than the state’s existing overall state record.

Melton, hindered a bit by a groin injury when he ran the 100-meter dash final at the Class 5A meet on this same track three weeks earlier, blazed to a time of 10.34 seconds in the 100 final on Saturday. He placed third.

New Mexico’s high school record is 10.50. State records can only be broken at the state meet, but still, this was an epic sprint by Melton.

“I tweaked my groin at state, so I felt like I had something to prove here,” said Melton. “It happened. It finally came together.”

The boys’ “elite” 100 proved to be the most bizarre of any final at the meet.

Texas’ Justin Stewart was in the final, but had an issue with his blocks when the race started. Officials determined the glitch was not his doing, so they allowed him to run the 100. Which he did — by himself. Which made for an extremely unusual scene.

Stewart proceeded to post a time of 10.05 seconds, the fastest-ever time posted at this venerable meet. But it was not wind legal. (Melton’s 10.34, by contrast, was legal, even though that race only occurred a few minutes before Stewart took the track).

“I didn’t think I was gonna run that time,” said Stewart, who is from Fort Worth. His previous personal best in the 100 was 10.24 seconds.

But going solo proved to be a unique challenge.

“I had to visualize that they were in the race with me,” he said. “Because nobody was there to push me.”

Stewart late in the evening added the 200-meter crown, with Melton adding a second, third-place finish.

Melton’s Santa Fe teammate, Wittenburg, who last month broke the state’s overall record in the 400 (his time on May 17 was 46.42 seconds), ripped off a time of 45.66 in hot conditions Saturday.

“It was pretty special, man,” said Wittenburg, who has signed to run at UNM. “When I crossed the line … unbelievable.”

Wittenburg said showing well was important.

“Texas is always the powerhouse here, so part of you really wants to represent New Mexico,” he said. “I’m a competitor. I absolutely hate losing, so I give it everything I’ve got every single time.”

Both Wittenburg and Melton, along with Bryan Thomas of St. Pius and Tanner Montaño of La Cueva, on Saturday night teamed up to run the 4x400-meter relay. They combined to finish in 3:15.76, which was third behind Arizona and Texas.

Montaño, the state’s long jump champion, finished third in that event earlier in the day on Saturday. He jumped 23 feet, 9½ inches; the winning jump was 24-5¾.

James of Cleveland, who swept the girls two hurdles events at the state meet, ran a 42.86 in the 300-intermediate hurdles.

Although that only placed her fifth in the race, that time was lower than the existing overall New Mexico state mark, which was 42.89 set in 2014.

One of the real highlights Saturday for New Mexico’s team was the 1-2-3 finish in the boys 1-mile event.

Nicholas Ponte of Albuquerque Academy, the Class 4A sate champ at the 1,600 and 3,200, won a tight finish against Cleveland’s Lucas Espinosa.

Ponte had the lead for the first half of the race before Espinosa slipped in front. But Ponte reclaimed the lead on the final lap and outkicked Espinosa to the finish.

Ponte’s winning time was 4 minutes, 22.20 seconds. Espinosa’s time was 4:22.59.

“When we raced at Harper (the regular season meet at Academy), he beat me with about 300 to go, he passed me,” Ponte said. “This time, I just tried to stick with him, until at least the last 100 and then kick as hard as I could. … It was fun beating him.”

Ponte is one of a handful of New Mexicans who are headed to Oregon in two weeks for the Nike Outdoor Nationals. Montaño said he will be attending. So is Rio Rancho distance runner Charlie Vause, and Wittenburg, to name four.

The girls elite 800 saw New Mexico place first and third with Grants’ Laila Martinez (2:17.19) and Albuquerque High’s Adelyn Harper (2:18.65).

Jeron Wisner of Organ Mountain, who signed with Gonzaga, captured first in the 3,200-meter final (9:33.40), while La Cueva’s Nikko Mihan was runner-up.

Some other notes from Saturday:

INDIVIDUAL: Farmington’s Alex Serrano placed third in the 300 hurdles; Albuquerque Academy’s Grace Erinle, the metro area’s top all-around athlete, was fourth in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump; Tagoya Pedro of Laguna-Acoma, a multiple state champion for the Hawks, finished second in the elite 800; Grant Vlaun of La Cueva, the state pole vault champion, had a rough day, finishing fifth with a top mark of 14-5¼.

TEAM: Utah’s boys, with 264 points, won the meet. Texas (194) was second, New Mexico (171) third. Texas’ girls piled up 272 points and placed first. Utah (204.5) was second. New Mexico (71) — which had far fewer elite athletes attend the Great Southwest than did the boys — finished fifth.