IHS joins 12 squads at PV Invite in Farmington
Traveling down to Hutchison Stadium in Farmington, N.M., to begin the spring season, Ignacio Track-and-Field competed at the Piedra Vista Invitational on Saturday, March 11. And while missing several prospective team members due to the lengthy basketball season, the squad still left with some promising results.
Senior Azala Perez led the way on the girls’ side of the 13-team gathering with a share of fourth place in the 100-meter dash, her 13.86-second effort equaling that of 5A Kirtland (N.M.) Central’s Danielle Dryden. She also took ninth in the pole vault, clearing six feet even, and finished 13th in the 200 meters (30.16 seconds).
Jaylynn Herrera was 11th in the 100 with a 14.60-second clocking, and ended up 22nd in the 200 (31.41).
Briana Duran had the team’s lone throwing result with a 23rd-place best of 23’4” in the shot put.
Expected to lead the Bobcat boys’ throwers this season, Natoni Cundiff recorded the gents’ best result with a sixth-place discus throw of 117 feet, seven inches. He also took 22nd in the shot put, maxing out at 33’7”. Teammate Mitchell Neil was close behind in 24th with a best of 32’11”, and Pablo Garcia Garcia was 38th (21’10”).
Senior Colten Smithson took ninth in the high jump, clearing 8’0”, and Esteban Romero was 20th in the long jump (17’0”). Neil was 41st in the 100 (13.87) and Romero 44th (13.97), with Smithson (46th, 14.10), Cundiff (52nd, 15.34) and Chaston Cundiff (53rd, 17.70) also competing in the shortest sprint.
Up next for IHS will be the Bloomfield, N.M., Quad on Friday, Mar. 17, beginning at 3 p.m.
OTHER OPENERS
Ignacio Baseball (14-5 overall last season) will get 2017 underway hosting the March 17-18 Bobcat Invitational, with 2A/1A San Juan Basin League rival Dolores (winless in ’16), 2A Sargent (17-3), 3A Salida (9-11), 3A Pagosa Springs (2-16) and 3A Buena Vista (9-11) all scheduled to attend as of Monday, Mar. 13.
Sargent enjoyed the longest spring of all last year, having qualified for the 2A State Championships. But as the 16-team, single-elimination bracket’s #16 seed, the Farmers left Pueblo quickly after a first-round, 11-1 loss to 1-seed and eventual State semifinalist Paonia.
IHS Girls’ Soccer was to get underway Thursday, Mar. 16, at Montezuma-Cortez, but results were unavailable at press time. The Lady Bobcats’ next scheduled match was a trip to Pagosa Springs on the 21st.
Competing in the 3A/2A Intermountain (formerly, and often still interchangeably called Southwestern) League – comprised of teams from 2A-Region 4 (Ignacio, Telluride, Ridgway, Center, plus newcomers Del Norte and Crested Butte) and 3A-Region 5 (Bayfield, Alamosa, M-CHS, PSHS) – the ever-developing Lady Bobcat program will be led by new head coach Daniel Sanchez.
No stranger to working with and molding raw talent, Sanchez was named the New Mexico Activities Association District 1-5A Coach-of-the-Year just over a decade ago, after changing the culture surrounding the sport at Albuquerque West Mesa – which made the 2006 NMAA/Cross Country Auto Sales 5A State Championships.
“Remarkably turned program participation and level of play around,” read the anonymous distinction beneath his name on the All-District Team listing, posted online at nmsoccer.com.