Rahmer sisters race to victories at National Junior Olympic track meet

EUGENE, Ore. — The Albuquerque Athletics Track sister tandem of Gianna and Isla Rahmer won national championships on Saturday at the USA Track & Field National Junior Olympic meet at Hayward Field.

Each of the Rahmer sisters won her age group in the 3,000-meter run by more than two seconds, said AAT coach Carl Brasher. Isla won the 11/12 Girls 3K race in 10 minutes, 25.41 seconds, and Gianna won the 13/14 Girls 3K race in 9:59.85.

Then late Saturday, Isla Rahmer won the 11/12 Girls 1,500 in 4:57.70, running in the fourth and fastest heat against 71 other competitors for her second national title of the day.

Isla Rahmer’s 3,000 win was difficult, per Brasher, because she was in the slower, second heat of three. “Isla had to run against the clock and then wait and see how she would finish overall,” he wrote.

Gianna Rahmer was seeded first in the 3,000 going into her race.

Both sisters were scheduled to run the 1,500 later. Isla, a rising fifth-grader at John Baker Elementary School, was seeded fourth for Saturday’s race, and Gianna was third (4:48.73 in the 1,500 prelims) for a Sunday final.

Both Rahmer sisters are adding their 3K age group triumph to victories last December at the national Junior Olympic cross country meet held on the campus of Texas A&M in College Station.

Saturday’s performances provided Isla’s third and fourth All-American awards and second and third individual national titles, including one in cross country.

Gianna Rahmer, a rising eighth-grader at Hoover Middle School who will run for Eldorado High this fall, has six All-America honors to go with her two national titles.

AAT entered 13 athletes into this year’s national meet, five alone in the various 1,500 races.

Other New Mexico athletes competing in this year’s nationals include Tanner Montaño, competing for the New Mexico Jags track club, who was runner-up and earned All-America awards for second-place finishes in the 15/16 Boys long jump (23 feet, 9½ inches) and the 200 meters (21.71).

Montaño, who won the state Class 5A long jump title this past spring as a La Cueva High freshman, competes in the 100-meter final on Sunday as the second seed (10.89).

Santa Fe’s Bryce Melton, New Mexico’s Class 5A state champion in the 100- and 200-meter dash in May, qualified in the finals of both those events in Eugene in the 17/18 age division. He finished sixth Saturday night in the 200 (21.63). Melton is seeded No. 3 in the 100 following qualifying (where he ran a 10.62).