Lady Panthers in first after day one at state
ALBUQUERQUE — The Piedra Vista girls track team was in first place after the first day of the 5A state track championships Friday at the University of New Mexico Track and Field Complex in Albuquerque, and the Lady Panthers are poised for a big final today.
Though just four events had their finals on Friday, the Lady Panthers recorded 18 points and had strong performances in the preliminaries.
"We’re looking great. We’re actually ahead of where we thought we’d be," said PV assistant coach Adam Huff. "You can have a little bit of slippage when you get points out of someone who you didn’t expect."
Katie Mead provided that unexpected spark in the long jump, placing third with a jump of 16-09.50.
The Lady Panthers’ 4x100-meter relay team of Hayden Carpenter, Cassandra Crowell, Haley Golden and Samantha Dewees broke PV’s school record with a time of 48.97 seconds.
PV moved three girls into the finals of the 110 and 300 hurdle events, and the Lady Panthers also qualified for the finals of the 4x200 and 4x400.
"We’re sitting pretty confident. Basically everyone who was supposed to qualify for finals today did," Huff said.
Los Alamos is in second place with 15 points, followed by St. Pius X in third with 12 points.
The Aztec girls are in sixth place with 5 points. Farmington sits in 10th with 2 points.
On the boys’ side, Farmington looks to be locked into a battle with Albuquerque Academy and Lovington for the team title.
The Scorps are in fifth place after the first day with 8 points, but they moved a good group into today's finals.
"Our boys team is looking really solid. It’s going to be a dog fight between us, Academy and Lovington, and then you have teams like PV chomping at the bit right behind," Farmington head coach Jeff Dalton said.
Lovington leads with 27 points, followed by Academy’s 23.5 points.
Clayton Corley placed second in the high jump with a mark of 6 feet.
The Scorps did suffer a big blow in the hurdle events. Tanner Waite, who was the top seed in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, didn’t make the finals in either event.
In the 110 event, Waite collided with a hurdle, which ended up in teammate Berrett Bentley’s lane, causing Bentley to also miss out on the finals.
"It was really tough to see, but the team is really rallying around those guys, and they’re ready to fight and be the scrappy team that we are to pick up points wherever we can to stay in the fight," Dalton said.
The boys and girls championships resume this morning.
Aztec coach Steve Lanier could not be reached for comment.
Karl Schneider is the sports editor for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4648.