The Lady Bulldog cross country team logged an Artesia squad’s best finish ever at the mammoth Rio Rancho Jamboree Saturday, coming in second overall out of a field of 21 teams in the large school division.
The Lady ‘Dogs were the top Class 5A girls’ team at the meet, coming in behind 6A Centennial and ahead of District 4AAAAA rival Lovington.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, after struggling with injuries for the bulk of the regular season, turned in a solid 10th out of a field of 24 in the boys’ large school race, meaning the Artesia runner look to be on pace for an exciting postseason.
“Everybody did well today,” head coach Shelley Ebarb said Saturday. “It was a good race and a good chance for them to get a look at the course for the state meet.
“Our times were a little better than last year, but sometimes five seconds can be 10 places, so you just have to run a little bit faster each time.
Hopefully, we come back for state and run even faster than we did today.”
For the Lady ‘Dogs, Michaela Phipps came in 10th overall individually out of 150 runners on the morning in Rio Rancho with a time of 21:41.50, followed closely by Madilynn Moon in 13th with a 21:52.70.
Placing 21st was Lauren Robson with a time of 22:34.20, followed by Joslyn Madrid (34th , 23:14.10), Kimberlee Bennett (44th, 23:46.40), Katelynn Sullivan (61st, 24:18.90) and Ali Mauritsen (99th, 25:44.00).
“We had five girls who had good days today,”
said Ebarb. “You have to have five having a good day at the same time, and we did. They did quite well.
“We worked all week on positive attitude and not getting moody. Your attitude has a lot to do with how you perform, and they were pretty happy this week and this morning, and it showed.
And they were extremely happy when they found out they’d gotten second place. They had no idea they’d done that well.”
Eliazar Granillo continued his impressive late regular season racing Saturday with a seventh place showing out of a field of 172 and a time of 17:27.30, followed by Julius Acosta in 16th with a 17:57.20.
Rounding out the race for the ‘Dogs were Kale Mauritsen in 77th (19:36.70), Isaac Lopez in 120th (21:04.60), Gabriel Montoya in 131st (21:23.50)
and Caleb Carnathan in 164th (24:48.50).
“This was only the third time the boys have run with a full team, so they did well,” said Ebarb.
“Eliazar and Julius did a great job. They’ve been training hard, and they had a good run. …
