Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Tiger teams have good numbers

LLHS boys attempt to defend 5-5A title

John Gale News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jgale@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas The Los Lunas High School cross country team enters the season hoping to improve on the boys' fifth-place finish at the Class 5A state meet and to repeat as District 5-5A champions, while the girls look to return to a high level of performance.

"We have almost everybody returning from last year for the guys, so they're a little more mature now, a little stronger," coach Larry Padilla said. "I think they're going to be nice and solid. I think our girls are going to be stronger than last year because our numbers are up, and we have some new talent."

Padilla said that a scrimmage at Valencia High School on Friday will determine the seven runners on each team that will compete at the first varsity meet, but he has a pretty good idea of who those seven will be.

For the boys, brothers Justin and Patrick Lueras, Jonah Ruybalid, Adam Chavez, Marty Gomez, William Kessler and Andrew Lavato are the probable members of the varsity squad.

The Tiger boys lost their top runner, all-state qualifier Ian Ruybalid, to graduation.

Both Lueras brothers and both of the Ruybalids were All-District 5-5A performers.

Ian Ruybalid scored an athletic scholarship to New Mexico State University, where he is now one of seven freshmen on the revamped Aggie men's cross country roster.

Ian was all-state as well, finishing fourth at the Class 5A meet.

On the girls' side, sisters Mateja and Tori Rye, Allison Casian, Katherine Benavidez, Kelly Chavez, Kendra Lente and Eliyah Lucero will likely start the season on varsity.

Padilla said he thinks the Tigers should be able to compete well with most of the teams in their district, though he mentioned that the Eldorado girls will be tough — they were ranked fifth in the nation and were undefeated all last year.

Los Lunas will begin its season on Saturday, Sept. 6, at Alamogordo. Padilla said he expects the Las Cruces schools, a few schools from El Paso and possibly Clovis and Hobbs to be there, among others.

"We used to be in the southern district, and we liked going there, so we've kept them on the schedule," Padilla said, referring to LLHS's five years as a part of 3-5A. "Normally during the year, we don't get a chance to see what the southern schools are like, so I usually schedule them early on, so we have the best chance to run against them at state if they make it."

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