Peerman's Power Rankings: 10 best things in New Mexico sports this week (Feb. 4)

Welcome to Peerman's Power Rankings (PPR), the 10 athletes, teams and story lines that have Journal sports editor Lucas Peerman's attention. Look for a new power rankings list every Sunday.

Have a suggestion, complaint or compliment? Email lpeerman@abqjournal.com or contact me on X @LucasPeerman.

10. West Mesa Boys

At the start of district play a few weeks ago, three of the six boys teams in District 2-5A were ranked in the top 10 (No. 5 Farmington, No. 6 La Cueva and No. 7 Sandia) in the state. Fast forward two weeks, and it's the then-unranked West Mesa Mustangs who have vaulted to the top of the district standings, beating Farmington and La Cueva in a 4-0 start. West Mesa plays at Sandia on Wednesday and the result might tell us how serious to take these Mustangs come March.

9. Max Rice

Boise State's senior guard entered Wednesday's game against No. 19 New Mexico with the lowest field goal percentage of any qualifying player in the Mountain West, according to Bronco Nation News. He proceeded to hit 12 of 20 from the field, including 7 of 14 three-pointers in the Broncos' 86-78 win. Teammate Chibuzo Agbo, when asked by BNN after the game to comment on Rice's career high 35 points, said: "He was cooking. Every shot felt like it was going to go in." That kind of performance in the Pit earns a spot in the PPR.

8. Austin Trout

Friday morning, Luis Palomino was the Bare Knuckle Fight Championship's best fighter pound-for-pound. He was a former champ in two weight divisions and at 43 years old was looking to claim the vacant welterweight belt that evening. Palomino woke up Saturday morning having suffered his first bare-knuckle loss, a unanimous decision, to a 38-year-old former pro boxer who had only one bare knuckle fight on his résumé. BKFC fans, meet Austin Trout, who hails from Las Cruces. "Get tired of me, (because) I’m not going nowhere," he said post fight. No doubt, Trout is the new crown jewel of the bare-knuckle fight world.

7. Latavious Morris

The fourth-ranked Atrisco Heritage Jaguars have won six straight, including beating No. 3 Cleveland in their most recent outing. Junior 5-9 point guard Latavious Morris comes up big in the team's biggest games. He went for 48 against the Storm and 40 versus Rio Rancho a few days earlier. He's averaging nearly 24 points per game and 5 assists per game on the season and has these Jaguars rolling toward contender status.

6. Christian Cook

New Mexico State has lost only one game at the Pan American Center this season, a 73-72 defeat to rival New Mexico, who was ranked No. 19 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. They may have lost two more games at home this week if not for the late-game heroics from Christian Cook, who is staking his claim as the Aggies' go-to player. Thursday, Cook scored a season-high 27 points and nailed a dagger late in overtime to give NMSU a 79-73 win over Liberty and followed that up by going for a team-high 17, including hitting the deciding free throws with 12 seconds to go, in a 67-65 win over Jacksonville State on Saturday.

5. Nyah Wilson

For the third consecutive week, Lobos guard Nyah Wilson set a career high in scoring. On Saturday, she upped it to 25 points in a 62-56 home loss to Mountain West-leading UNLV. Also on Saturday, UNM recognized National Girls & Women in Sports Day with female Lobo athletes around the Pit concourse to meet fans. Admission was free for girls 12 and under. PPR is dedicating the top five spots this week to deserving girls and women in the state, not only to echo the sentiment that "women belong in sports," but also because these five athletes were frankly the top performers of the week.

4. Madi Martinez

As reporter James Yodice wrote on Thursday. "The night belonged to Madi Martinez. The game belonged to No. 2-ranked Volcano Vista." The Hawks beat Rio Rancho 70-60 but the story was Martinez, an eighth-grader who poured in 41 points for the Rams. Volcano Vista, which may be the best team in the state, couldn't stop a girl who isn't even old enough to attend high school. But she proved she belongs on the court with the best high school players in the state. Madi Martinez. Remember that name.

3. Bella Hines

Bella Hines didn't play high school basketball as an eighth-grader. If she had, we might be celebrating her 3,000th career point scored. Instead, it's only 2,000 points that Hines, the best girls basketball player the state has ever seen, has scored in a little less than three seasons for Eldorado. If you haven't already, check out Yodice's column on the Mount Rushmore of New Mexico girls basketball players and let him know who should be etched in greatness alongside Hines.

2. Rebecca Green

A few weeks ago, Los Alamos native Rebecca Green broke NMSU’s longstanding shot put record with a toss of 15.76 meters. On Saturday, she broke it again, tossing the shot put 16.10 meters at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque. She likely be back in the Duke City in a few weeks for the USA Track and Field Indoor Championships. There, Green might compete against Chase Ealey, who holds the United States record in shot put. Know what's fascinating about this potential meet-up? Ealey hails from Los Alamos, too!

1. Sofie Schunk

The best distance runners in the United States gathered Saturday in Orlando, Fla., to try to make it on to the team the country will send to Paris to try to bring home gold in the Olympic marathon. Fiona O'Keeffe (a former UNM grad student) set a new women's record in winning the U.S. Olympic marathon trials. But the competitor PPR wants to highlight is not the one who finished first, but the one who finished 117th — the last person to cross that finish line. Sofie Schunk is a former La Cueva High and Marquette University soccer star who came home to Albuquerque for a job at Sandia Labs. In her spare time, she runs marathons and while she's not the quickest, she's fast enough to quality for a chance to be on the US Olympic team. And that's notable because Schunk competes in endurance runs while managing Type 1 diabetes. The fact that she crossed the finish line at all after 26.2 miles is a testament to her never-quit attitude. No athlete or team in New Mexico had a more impressive performance this week. Well done, Sofie!

Honorable mention

Terance Mathis: Congrats to best Lobo receiver of all time for getting a head-coaching gig at Morehouse College. PPR will be keeping tabs on Morehouse football next season to see if Mathis can inspire the Maroon Tigers to attain their first winning season since 2018.

Donovan Dent: Dent, the UNM men's basketball sophomore sensation, scored a career high 31 points in an 86-78 loss to Boise State on Wednesday. The Lobos were in the game late thanks to Dent, who hit 12 of 18 shots (67 percent). His teammates shot 15 of 48 (31 percent) from the field that game.

New Mexico Ice Wolves: Love the Ronald McDonald jersey; love that fans can buy those game-worn jerseys as a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House of New Mexico. Love that on Friday, hundreds of school-age kids got to go watch the Ice Wolves play in those jerseys because for many of the kids, it was their first hockey game ever.

End of the bench

There's no excuse for the punch New Mexico State's Robert Carpenter threw at Liberty’s Shiloh Robinson during their game Thursday in Las Cruces. Carpenter was ejected and Robinson is now out with a broken nose. The NMSU basketball program, reeling from a disastrous campaign on and off the court last season, rightfully sent a message in indefinitely suspending Carpenter, the team's third leading scorer. Carpenter and NMSU coach Jason Hooten deserve kudos for apologizing to Robinson in person after the game and again publicly in a news release sent to media the next day. Hooten, whose Aggies are in third place in Conference USA, is so far proving the be the right guy at the right time, instilling high standards on and off the court.