Tiger runners look strong; Jaguar newcomer impresses

Los Lunas

Rebuilding or reloading were common themes at last Thursday’s cross country scrimmage at Los Lunas High School, although the LLHS boys seemed a stride ahead of last season at this point.

Belen and Valencia runners rounded out the field, joining the Tigers on the three mile course covering much of the Los Lunas campus. In the boys race, Los Lunas dominated with eight of the top 10 runners, second through ninth.

“I think this is one of the strongest boys teams we’ve ever had,” said Larry Padilla, longtime LLHS coach, shortly before the run. “We have everybody back from last year and everybody’s just a little stronger.”

Los Lunas has “a bunch of new girls this year,” with only Ainsley McKay and Serina Jaramillo with experience. McKay captured the scrimmage in a time of 24:01, with Jaramillo (26:26) third. Padilla particularly likes the camaraderie of the entire team.

“These guys are really dedicated this year, they’re really determined,” the coach said. “They run together, they put in a lot of miles.”

In addition to the superiority by the Los Lunas boys, the highlight of the scrimmage was the performance of newcomer Ean Elias, of Valencia, who hit the finish line in 18:23, ahead of the Tigers’ Brady Garcia (18:48), James Martinez (19:04), Eloy Urtiaga (19:34) and Lucas Bland (20:04).

“It was hot,” said Elias, chuckling while sweating up a storm a few minutes after his run. “I was not expecting it to be that hot, to be honest.”

Elias, who is a home-schooled junior, only joined the Jaguars three weeks before the scrimmage.

“I’ve done some running on my own and with a home school cross country team,” Elias said. “This is my first time running for a public school.”

Valencia coach Ashley Brower has a gem in Elias, but he is one of only four members on the entire team, two boys and two girls.

“I just encourage them to do their best, run at their pace,” Brower said about working with a small roster.

Personifying the “rebuild” aspect is Belen, which had a strong girls team in recent years, but lost plenty of talent to graduation.

“We’ve got a very young team this year. We only have one senior between the boys and girls,” said coach Fernando Sisneros.

Leilani Gonzales, who finished second in the scrimmage (25:08), leads the girls along with Carlie Baca, who was fourth (26:42).

“We’re kind of slow-baking everybody,” Sisneros said. “It’s going to take a few years to get back to where we were and we’re OK with that.”

Over the summer, it appeared the Eagles would be sparse in numbers on the boys’ side, with only Samuel Sisneros, the coach’s son, regularly coming to workouts; however, late additions have pushed the numbers for varsity up to seven.

“Most of them have no experience in cross country — there are a lot of baby steps this year,” he said.

While the Belen Middle School team has just one boy, there are nine girls competing, giving hope for the future. \

Both Belen and Los Lunas, which has doubled its roster, fielded middle school teams that competed in the scrimmage before the varsity.

Brower is hoping that will be possible for Valencia in the future.

“Hopefully, next year we’ll get to do our cross country camp to help with that,” Brower said about increasing numbers.

After a year hiatus, the Adron Gardner Classic will return Sept. 20 to Belen. The Los Lunas Invitational is set for Oct. 11.