THS senior finishes 4th at Santa Rosa meet

Tucumcari senior Alex Bueno De La O finished fourth overall Saturday at the 21-team City of Natural Lakes invitational at Santa Rosa.

Bueno De La O finished the 5,000-meter course on city parks near the Blue Hole in 18 minutes, 2 seconds, which was less than a minute behind the winner.

As good as it sounds, Tucumcari coach Tim Clark said the senior can do better.

“He had a bad start,” Clark said. “He wants to hang back so he can set up his pace. But he needs to figure out a way to get closer to the front.”

Bueno De La O also was without his usual running partner, Fernando Ureste, because he was taking his ACTs. Clark said Ureste and Bueno De La O often push each other in practice and in races.

Clark said Patric Szaloy finished in the middle of the pack. He said Paxton Smith ran poorly, probably because he was at Logan’s Homecoming dance until late.

Heaven Maes-Arellano of Tucumcari finished 18th in the girls race in a time of 27:53.

Bryson Klinger and MiKayla Klinger, both of them runners for THS, each were out of town due to them being competitors at the FFA Convention in Indianapolis.

Full results from the meet weren’t available before deadline.

Tucumcari will compete at the district meet at 3 p.m. Friday at Raton, which will determine which teams and individuals will qualify for the state meet in Albuquerque Academy on Nov. 9.

Runners from Logan, San Jon and House will compete at their district meet Saturday at Mescalero.