Course correction salvages Gardner Classic X-Country meet

Belen

With all due respect to the runners who battled the course Saturday at the Adron Gardner Classic Cross Country meet at Belen High School, it may have been the BHS coaches and volunteers who were the true stars.

The week leading up to the race was spent seeking alternative courses after a heavy rain the previous Friday washed out a ditch bank that left the original layout impassable.

“This week we came up with two additional courses, cleaned it up and set it up” the night before the race, said Fernando Sisneros, BHS head coach.

All that effort was washed away when another rain hit hours before the Classic, making the course “too slippery and muddy to run through,” said Sisneros.

With two possible options out, plans B and C, another route was needed.

Sisneros and other Belen coaches “figured out a new course this morning (Saturday) at 6 a.m.”

One of those coaches, Derek Logan, ran several possible routes early that morning, “until we found one that was the right distance and passable,” said Sisneros, who praised Logan and coaches Ruben Martinez, Joanne Silva and Tanya Gonzales for their efforts.

With the starting gun going off only about 45 minutes late, runners from Belen, Los Lunas, Valencia, Centennial, Organ Mountain, Las Cruces and Socorro hit the 3.15 mile trail. The course started on the football field, heading north around the softball field and winding through the BHS campus.

As the competitors crossed the finish line back at the stadium, the reviews of the setup were positive.

“Overall, it was a good run,” said Isaac Gonzales, of LLHS, who finished third. “I actually liked the new course more than the old course.”

Ean Elias, Valencia’s only entrant in the boys race, finished just ahead of Gonzales in second place. He said there was plenty of mud to navigate.

“Other than that it was a very enjoyable course. I felt it was OK with all the people and volunteers,” Elias said. “I think they did a really good job of keeping us on course.”

Even though it was her home turf, Belen’s Carlie Baca admitted she almost made a wrong turn.

“It was a little weird because it was like a brand new course because our course got destroyed,” Baca said, while adding, “For not knowing anything (about the layout), I really liked it.”

For the boys, Daxton Coombs of Organ Mountain (16:34) finished first, followed by Elias (16:49) and Gonzales (16:54). Brady Garcia (17:17) and James Martinez (17:38) also finished in the top 10 for Los Lunas, helping the Tigers to their third team title of the season.

“We may not look like runners but all of us have the runners heart,” said Gonzales. “We’re killing it.”

Tristan Frazier (20:22) was Belen’s top male runner, finishing 22nd, while the Eagles were sixth.

In the girls’ run, Organ Mountain took top team honors, followed by Socorro and Los Lunas. Belen was fifth.

Individually, OMHS freshmen Ashley Galaz (19:56) and Jaymie McBroom (21:31) were first and second, with Ainsley McKay (21:41) of LLHS third. For Belen, Baca (22:49) and Leilani Gonzales (23:06) were eighth and tenth respectively. Eighth grader Harleigh Sego was Valencia’s lone female competitor.

There were also separate races for junior varsity and middle school runners.