Prep Track & Field: Cleveland javelin thrower, Academy long jumper wow at Metros

The unexpected emergence of Giovanni Mollica, a sophomore at Cleveland High School, is not a story you’re apt to find at a track and field meet. At least not a prestige meet like the Albuquerque Metro Championships.

Mollica is a former baseball player at Cleveland. This spring, he switched sports and decided to try his hand — or more specifically, his live right arm — at the javelin.

He had marching orders from Storm coaches: commit to this on a daily basis, put in the work, and it can pay off down the road.

“I had a little bit of a setback during baseball, so I came out here during track and worked hard all season, and it worked out, and I got to come out and compete,” he said.

Indeed, on Thursday, two weeks before the end of the 2025 New Mexico prep track and field season, Mollica was participating in his first meet of the year.

His debut was spectacular, and he won it based on his very first throw in his very first competition.

He had, a Storm coach said, thrown 154 feet in a practice. But he’d never been under scrutiny like Thursday. And yet, on his first attempt in prelims, his javelin traveled a whopping 187 feet, 5 inches, and Mollica ended up taking first in the event by exactly 18 feet over the athlete that had been setting the standard in the metro area this year, La Cueva’s Troy Dixon.

Mollica was so pleased he repeated the same two words three times as he let out a big laugh.

“It’s awesome. It’s awesome. It’s awesome,” he said.

Mollica also had the second-best throw of the event, 183-5 ½.

“I put in a lot of work over the last couple of months, just waiting to get my shot,” he said. “I was just ready.”

Mollica’s victory was almost certainly the most surprising result on day one of metros, conducted on an aggressively breezy, and sometimes gusty, afternoon and evening at Nusenda Community Stadium.

There was only one individual track final on Day 1, the 3,200-meter run. The metro’s two heavyweights, Rio Rancho’s Charlie Vause and Eldorado’s Gianna Rahmer, are sitting out the distance races this week.

Volcano Vista’s Carysa Marquez, one of the metro’s best and most consistent runners, won in a time of 11 minutes, 10.76 seconds, well in front of Academy’s Addison Julian. Lucas Espinosa of Cleveland was the boys winner in 9:43.61, just over six seconds in front of Talen Riley of Volcano Vista. The Storm had a third individual champion Thursday in junior Moses Sparks, in the shot put (51 feet, 8 inches).

Isabella Files of Rio Grande continued her heater in the girls shot put. Following victories at the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions and the Richard Harper meet last weekend at Albuquerque Academy, she earned another victory at metros, and this was the closest of all the field event finals Thursday. She recorded a mark of 35 feet, 10 ½ inches. Rio Rancho’s Anni Presser was right behind, at 35-10.

Academy sophomore Grace Erinle, coming off a high-point performance at her home Harper meet, made her final attempt in the long jump her best, soaring 17 feet, 5 inches. Her sister, Funmi, an eighth-grader, finished second.

Albuquerque High hurdler Kaden Andrus was magnificent in his 110-meter high hurdles preliminary heat. He won his heat in 13.76 seconds, although he, as with all sprinters Thursday, had the benefit of a healthy tailwind blowing from north to south. The metro meet does not utilize a wind gauge. It nevertheless was a superb performance by Andrus. (Of note, the overall New Mexico state record in this event is 13.98 seconds, set 23 years ago. But state records can only be established at the state meet.)

Atrisco Heritage’s Mel Macias, who has been a hugely influential softball player for Atrisco Heritage this season, has been equally impressive throwing the javelin. She captured the metro title Thursday with a mark of 113 feet, 8 ½ inches. La Cueva’s Cienna Mazotti has been similarly impressive this spring in the high jump, and her mark of 5-2 won her a metro title.

NOTES: The boys pole vault had to be suspended in the evening due to excessive wind. There were only three athletes remaining, and they will return to complete the event at 4:15 p.m. Friday. … Rio Rancho’s girls and Cibola’s boys finished first in the 4x800-meter relay; the Cougars’ anchor, Tyler Wright, also is one of Cibola’s key baseball players. … La Cueva’s Tanner Montano went 10.60 seconds in the 100-meter prelims and he is the top seed going into Friday’s final. … There was still one field event, the boys long jump, that was still going at the Journal’s deadline.

DAY TWO: The remaining field events, and there are six of them (not including the conclusion of the boys pole vault), begin at either 4:15 or 6:45 p.m. Friday, and everyone is facing a weather forecast that appears to be dicey and possibly wet.

The running program Friday starts at 5:30 p.m.