12-15-2024 3:16am

Organ Mountain High School’s Corbin Coombs Competed at Foot Locker XC National Championships

Chris Edwards Editor

Corbin Coombs recognized by the LCPS Board and Superintendent Ruiz

Organ Mountain High School’s Corbin Coombs continues to compete and garner accolades as New Mexico's premier boys high school athlete in cross country and track and field competitions.

This weekend he competed in the Foot Locker Country National Championships in San Diego ranking 14th with a time of 15:50.2. This run comes on the heels of him placing 8th in regionals at the Foot Locker Cross Country Regionals Championships last weekend. From Southern New Mexico and district 3-5A Corbin Coombs, a senior at Organ Mountain High in New Mexico, earned eighth place in the boys 5-kilometer regionals championship race in 15:38.7 qualifying him for this weekend's nationals San Diego hosted meet.

Prior to that he finished first in the state of New Mexico NMAA Cross Country State Championships boys race, breaking the state record by 16 seconds.

Last year he was named Gatorade Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year for the state of New Mexico last year. His record of success grows. Last year he swept the 800 (1:53.96) and 1,600-meter (4:06.07) finals at the 5A NMAA Track and Field State Championships in May. He also anchored Organ Mountain’s state championship 4x800 relay (7:52.91) and led the Knights to a third place finish as a team. Coombs followed his success at the state championships with a runner-up finish in the 2-mile (8:53.44) at Nike Indoor Nationals in June, and played a starring role at the Great Southwest Meet in Albuquerque by sweeping the mile, 800 and 3,200.

The details of the Foot Locker Country National Championships in San Diego was one of a race that was closely contested throughout its early stages with nine national finalists moving along within one second of each other and 20 within three seconds of the lead all the way up to the half-way mark. At that point, the duo of senior Sam Quagliaroli (Fishers, IN) and senior Tamrat Gavenas began alternating pace-setting duties once early race leader senior Ben Crane (Wilmette, IL) yielded the lead. Crane recorded splits of 2:23.2
at the half mile and 4:48.4 at the mile before getting passed by the duo of Quagliaroli and Gavenas. The middle part of the race turned into a “Sam and Tam” show as a side-by-side Gavenas and Quagliaroli captured an identical two-mile split of 9:59.7. Shortly thereafter, Gavenas made the decisive move of the race, charging up the final big “Hoka Hill,” putting 20 meters on Quagliaroli and essentially setting up another coronation dash to the finish line with a winning time of 15:23.9. Though Quagliaroli faded somewhat, he still held on to finish a strong fourth in 15:35.0. The race runner-up was senior Juan Gonzalez (Fremont, NE), who made a late charge toward the front while finishing within four seconds of the champion in a time of 15:27.4. Rounding out the top-three was senior Jack Graffeo (Westford, MA), who just slipped past Quagliaroli as they approached the finish while notching a 15:34.5 time. In fifth place was senior Keegan Smith (Kingston, TN), who finished in 15:41.6. A quote from the winner is below. Click here for full boys’ results.