Lady Cats win Gene Wells Relays
HOBBS — The Clovis High girls track team looks like it’s taking up right where it left off.
The Lady Wildcats, Class 5A state champions in three of the last four years, scored in all but three events Friday to win the Gene Wells Relays at Hobbs with 113 points to 90 for the host Lady Eagles.
Clovis posted first-place finishes in six events, led by sophomore Marivel Garza with wins in discus (100-0) and shot put (33-4 1/2) and a runnerup finish to sophomore Kalana Brown (115-3) in discus. Freshman Jacee Isler took first place in triple jump (30-11), while the 400 and 800 relay teams also posted wins.
Meantime, the Clovis boys finished second with 98 points to 128 1/2 for Hobbs in the eight-school event.
Veteran CHS girls coach Darrel Ray said he wasn’t sure what to expect from his squad, which placed sixth in the season-opening Frenship Invitational on March 6.
“We’ve been (slowed by) the weather,” Ray said. “We ran our kids a lot (today) and got a lot of good work in.”
Ray said he is hoping to pick up perhaps six athletes from the basketball team, which finished its season on Thursday in the state meet at Albuquerque.
The boys’ performance was highlighted by two firsts and a school record effort of 59 feet, 9 inches in shot put by senior Richie Chavez, breaking his own school record. Chavez went 156-9 in taking discus competition, with state qualifying marks in both events.
The boys also won six events, with senior Blake Wiley leading a 1-2-3 Clovis finish in javelin (154-4), senior John Foster leading 1-3-6 finish in the 400 (52.59 seconds), freshman Jonathan Johnson taking the 300 hurdles (41.91) and junior Quran Wiggins winning the 200 (22.84).
Assistant coach Mike Hankins, filling in with coach Darren Kelley refereeing basketball games at the state tournament, said the team did relatively well overall. Clovis scored 14 events, including 11 of 12 on the track.
“We’re pretty young,” Hankins said. “No more than we’ve been able to get in good practice, I wasn’t sure where we were going to be.
“There’s definitely room for improvement, but I think the kids are doing pretty well right now.”
Clovis was originally scheduled to travel to the Bulldog Relays in Plainview, but a conflict was created when the NMAA moved the state meet up a week this year.
The Clovis boys return to action March 26-27 in the Amarillo Relays, while the girls’ next outing is March 27 in the Capital Relays at Santa Fe.
