Tucumcari senior finishes 47th at meet

Tucumcari senior Manny Hernandez finished 47th overall during the Class 3A boys cross-country state championships Saturday morning at Albuquerque Academy.

Hernandez, who finished third at the previous week’s district meet at Roswell, completed the five-kilometer course Saturday in 19 minutes, 39.95 seconds.

“Manny started out too fast,” coach Gary Hittson said. “After the first mile, Manny was in 27th, at the two-mile mark he had dropped to 37th place. … This is the best finish for Manny at state.”

Hernandez was Tucumcari’s lone contestant at the state meet.

Tucumcari sports boosters gave Hernandez a congratulatory greeting as he arrived back in town Saturday evening.

Melvin Scott Jr. of Tohatchi was the top individual runner in the boys race, with a time of 16:35.54. He nipped runner-up Kameron Eustace of Zuni by three one-hundredths of a second.

Zuni captured the Class 3A team title with 32 points.