Runners from Tucumcari and San Jon qualify for state

Tucumcari High School’s Alex Bueno De La O was the school’s lone runner to qualify for the state cross-country meet during Friday’s district event at Socorro.

Also, San Jon runner Rayna Sena qualified for state during Saturday’s district meet at Fort Stanton.

Bueno De La O, a junior, ran the primitive 5,000-meter course at the Socorro Rodeo & Sports Complex in 19 minutes, 39.3 seconds.

That was good enough for sixth place. The top 10 individual finishers advanced to the state meet.

Eddie Encinias, who coached the team while Tim Clark is sidelined after neck surgery, criticized the Socorro course.

“Alex didn’t run his best, but the course was pretty rough … horrible,” Encinias said. “I just didn’t like the course at all. It was a dirt road with a lot of rocks.”

Encinias said Bueno De La O ran about a minute slower than his best time.

“He started out a little too fast,” he said. “I think Alex will do a lot better at state, I really do.”

The state championships will take place on Saturday at Albuquerque Academy, with the Bueno De La O’s Class 3A boys race at 9 a.m.

Eighth-grader Brayan Carreon Reyes was Tucumcari’s second-fastest runner but missed qualifying for state, finishing 19th in 21:47.5.

Other Rattler runners at the meet were junior Julian Flores (25th, 22:44.01) and freshman Paxton Smith (43rd, 30:06.4).

“The kids have pushed each other all year,” Clark wrote in a text. “They all improved their running times. I couldn’t be any happier. Then never backed down, even in my absence. Alex had his sights on qualifying for state, and he never quit.”

Rodrigo Reyes of Hot Springs won the boys race in a time of 18:19.6, outpacing runner-up Ruidoso’s Jerimy Williams by 1.2 seconds.

Hot Springs won the district title with 41 points, edging Ruidoso’s 44 points. Runners from New Mexico Military Institute, Cobre, Dexter and Socorro also competed at the meet.

Tucumcari did not have enough runners to log team points.

Abby Cadol of Socorro won the girls district race in 23:24.2, and she and her teammates easily won the team title with 20 points. Tucumcari didn’t enter girls at the district meet.

At Fort Stanton during the District 3/4 meet for Class 1A and 2A schools, Sena finished 12th overall in the 5,000-meter girls race in 28:56.9.

The top four runners that weren’t with full teams qualified for state. Sena finished third in that category, giving her a state berth. Sena was the only San Jon varsity runner at the meet.

Yalitza Caballero of Hagerman won the race in 24:25.1. Gateway Christian won the girls team title with 40 points, edging runner-up Hagerman by one point.

Other teams at the race were Alamo Navajo, Capitan, Cliff, Cloudcroft, Loving, Mescalero Apache and Quemado.

Sena will run in the Class 1A-2A girls championships at Albuquerque Academy at 1:25 p.m. Saturday.