10-20-2024 11:42pm

Organ Mountains Corbin Coombs and Eldorado's Gianna Rahmer Shine this Weekend in Albuquerque

Chris Edwards Editor

Albuquerque Academy sports have been ranked #1 in New Mexico and 40th in the U.S. in MaxPreps’ annual rankings! The Chargers took home six state championships (girls cross country, girls swimming, girls golf, boys golf, girls tennis, and boys tennis) and were runners-up in five sports (boys cross country, girls soccer, volleyball, girls track, boys track) during the 2023-24 school year, earning 1,389 points.

This weekend the Albuquerque Academy hosted the Albuquerque Academy Cross Country Extravaganza. The weather was a mix of cold, rainy, breezy non ideal running conditions Saturday at Albuquerque Academy, where a great majority of New Mexico’s high school cross country runners gathered for the season’s most visible regular-season prep meet.

The pre-state Academy Extravaganza attracted nearly 1,400 athletes across four divisions and eight races. This is the same course they’ll run in three weeks for the state title.

Rio Rancho’s boys dominanted, again. And Class 5A’s superstars included Las Cruces Organ Mountain Cross Country team placing second in the boys run and 8th place in the girls run.

Eldorado freshman Gianna Rahmer, won for the third time on the Academy course, which was muddy and water logged from all the rain Friday night and Saturday morning. The defending Class 5A state champion won her race by an amazing 71 seconds. She finished in 17 minutes, 33.18 seconds. Mariah Galbraith of Rio Rancho (18:44.42) wasn’t even inside the Richard Harper stadium when Rahmer finished a full quarter mile in front of her.

Significant was how the Eagles performed as a team. Camar Dhaouadi finished in seventh, Sylvie Hadley ninth and Olivia Rule 10th for Eldorado.

Dhaouadi was beaming as she crossed, as for the first time she broke the 20-minute barrier. And beat it by 26 1/2 seconds.

The Eagles’ 53 points were 15 better than Cleveland. Rio Rancho’s boys dominated the top 10, as the Rams often do, as their 27 points was the best showing of the day by any boys team in any class. Las Cruces's Organ Mountain (61) was second, although the Knights went 1-2 at the top with Corbin Coombs (14:46.76) and Jeron Wisner (14:53.46).

Many eyes are Organ Mountain's Corbin Coombs who won two individual events at the New Mexico state track championships last spring – the boys 800 meters and the 1,600 and was a member of the state champion and state-record setting 4×800 relay.

Many eyes were also on Organ Mountain's Jeron Wisner's whose time in the 1,600 meters at state last year also set a new standard for New Mexico high school tracksters with a state record time of 4 minutes, 6.17 seconds.

Corbin Coombs and Jeron Wisner are considered the best high school boys runners in the state and top ranked in the nation.

“No kid in any classification has ever run a 4:06 at the state meet, with the exception of Corbin,” legendary Organ Mountain High School track and cross country coach David Nunez said.

For his efforts, Coombs was named the Gatorade New Mexico Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year for 2024 and he continues thst trend of peak performance as demonstrated at this weekend's meet.

Charlie Vause of Rio Rancho, was a distant third after fading in the second half of the race (15:24.49), led the Rams wave. Cody Sullivan was fourth, Mateo Herrera fifth, Alejandro Casaus sixth and Xavier Martinez ninth.

This was just the second time Coombs and Vause have raced against each other this fall; they also went head-to-head in a meet in Indiana earlier this month.

In the Class 4A run, the host had the biggest win of any school.

Anna Hastings (18:23.50) and Nicholas Ponte (15:40.82) won the individual Extravaganza titles, and the Chargers beat rival Los Alamos for first place in both races. It was a score of 37-51 for the boys, 39-49 for the girls.

Sandia Prep’s Kate Henderson, whose 18:12.65 was nearly half a minute quicker than Chloe Grieco of St. Michael’s in Class 3A. Elijah England of Navajo Prep (16:27.37) beat Cottonwood Classical Prep’s Shane Yara (16:29.61) in the 3A boys race.

The 3A team champions were Santa Fe Prep’s girls, 23-86 over CCP, and the boys from St. Michael’s, 45-61 over Santa Fe Indian.

Oak Grove’s siblings, Joshua and Olivia, both won impressively in the Class 1A-2A. McCurdy’s girls and Oak Grove’s boys (70-83 over Laguna-Acoma) were the 1A-2A team winners.