4-16-2024 5:37am

Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions Shimmers on a Blustery Day

Chris Edwards Editor

The prestigious Marilyn Sepulveda by invitation only, “Meet of Champions” Track and Field event was held in at the University of New Mexico on Monday. Leading up to the event headlines from around the state were a glow with students excited to be invited.

The event is named after legendary Alamogordo educator and Coach Marilyn Sepulveda. Her story and the details of her event were in a prior story we ran this week leading up to the event. A breathtaking 65 schools were registered to participate in this unique meet.

The Navajo Times ran a story Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions, Gallop Qualifies Three Athletes for All Star Meet:

Three athletes from Gallup High were invited to the prestigious meet, as athletes were selected based on their top marks and times this season.

Senior Theodore Roundface qualified in the 1600-meter run while juniors Brady Thompson and Tiana Tom earned invitations in the throwing events. Tom made the shot put field and Thompson is participating in two events: discus and javelin.

“I think it’s cool and awesome to be invited,” said Thompson, who transferred to Gallup at the start of the school year from Maple Mountain High School in Springville, Utah.

“I’ll see some of the best throwers in the state, and I’m just proud of myself to get invited,” Thompson said.

“I’m just excited more than anything,” Roundface said. “I mean, I get to race against those (top) guys and I feel like I can hang with them.”

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on the event and said, MARILYN SEPULVEDA MEET OF CHAMPIONS, Los Alamos' Daniels, Gutierrez overcome injuries to dominate Sepulveda meet.

As is tradition, the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions delivered as expected and the Albuquerque Journal said of the event, Stars shine bright at the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions.

One of the things you can usually count on at the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions is the stars will shine and shine bright!

Las Cruces High represented Southern Néw Mexico well with Kaselle Davis as the big winner, with three victories. She edged Daniels in the 100 and was first in the high jump and the 400.

Gianna Rahmer of Eldorado was there, and won her only race reported the Albuquerque Journal.

Rahmer, the eighth-grader who gained fame from originally from Hoover Middle School, was entered in both the 1,600 and 3,200, but she only competed in the mile and won. She finished in 5 minutes, 10.91 seconds.

The Sepulveda, featured sprinter Melaki Gutierrez of Los Alamos who dominated and swept the 100- and 200-meter finals. And yes another Hilltopper that the state is watching, Jaiya Daniels, was also a double champion and registered a staggering mark in the triple jump especially given the weather was not cooperating for the event this year.

It was especially windy almost borderline nasty Monday at the University of New Mexico Track and Field Complex and yet the athletes persevered the headliners did their thing and shined through the muck of wind and then some!

Los Alamos High School was the school that had the biggest day with the most individual victories, which is hardly surprising given the Hilltoppers’ had dominate status at this years event and is viewed as a frontrunner for a state championship and the team to beat in 2024.

Daniels, a junior, amazed the crowd and herself with her first jump of 39 feet, 4½ inches in the triple jump, by far a personal best for her. She was the runner-up in the 100, and later won the 200 as well.

Melaki Gutierrez also of Los Alamos, considered by most sports analysts as one of New Mexico’s best overall athletes with plans to compete for the Lobos in both track and football, ran a 10.92 seconds to capture the 100, and later ran 21.65 to take the 200.

The Albuquerque Journal reported on one of the factors that makes the Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions so unique is that division play is suspended for this event.

The Sepulveda is rare insomuch as top athletes from all five classes compete in the same meet, which frankly doesn’t occur except really this one day.

Take an athlete like Kaden Judd from Class 1A Logan, who qualified in three events Monday and came in as the top seed in the pole vault.

And you almost always will find one athlete from outside the largest classes who breaks through with a victory.

On Monday, that was Socorro senior Braden Mounyo, who didn’t even realize for about 45 minutes that he had won the 110-meter high hurdles final. He crossed the line in 14.50 seconds.

“This is definitely a dream,” Mounyo said. “Last year, I was injured and they didn’t let me run.”

He suffered an eye injury in a bit of a freak accident, which prevented from running at the Sepulveda.

“It kind of hurt me,” he said. “This year, I wanted to get in here and show what 3A can do.”

Another 3A athlete shined above his schools classification, Derek Schuller of Cobre, won the boys shot put, edging out Clovis 5A, District 4’s Jeremiah Johnson.

St. Michael’s Chloe Grieco was the champion in the 3,200, the last of the running finals in the early evening.

Cam Dyer of La Cueva which is Class 5a, was the boys long jump champion with a mark of 21 feet, 5 inches. Frederick Ford of Albuquerque High also a Class 5A talent and and a significantly versatile athlete, won the triple jump with a mark of 44-2.

Hope Christian, a 4a schools, Hayden Saul won the girls 300-meter intermediate hurdles and Brennan Nelson of Volcano Vista was the winner in the boys javelin, Nick Moore of Eldorado won the boys 1,600, and Cruz Sanchez of Volcano Vista took the 3,200.

Alamogordo High School participated in the meet as were 64 other schools from throughout New Mexico represented.

Organ Mountain’s infamous Yeh-Nhi Wilson who helped lead them to the boys 5A state basketball championship was on hand as a multiple sports lettered athlete and he won the high jump on Monday, going 6 feet, 2 inches in the difficult weather conditions.

Kaselle Davis of Las Cruces High was the big winner Monday, with three victories; in the 100 and was first in the high jump and the 400 placing Las Cruces as the tops of Southern New Mexico schools in medal count.

Raylee Hunt of St. Michael’s, a veteran distance runner, won the girls 800.

The Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions delivered as expected to a large audience and the largest breadth of New Mexico’s best track and field athletes. The medals are supplied to this event, every year by 88 year old NMAAA Coaches Hall of Fame inductee Coach Bob Sepulveda as a tribute and an honor to the memory of his late wife.

The complete results of all schools are not yet posted, but meet organizers assure us they will be posted by end of day at https://nm.milesplit.com/meets/606774-2024-marilyn-sepulveda-meet-of-ch…