Top Moment of the Meet (1)
Elijah DeLaCerda races to close out the Alamosa team score.
Alamosa Dominates Boys Team Scoring
A casual glance at the 3A rankings from any point in the season to date says that Alamosa should have handled the small-school competition at this meet with ease. What that same glance at the rankings may not have told you, however, is that Alamosa would dump all the 4A and 5A programs that showed up as well--including 4A #4 Widefield.
The Mean Moose are deep and fast. Of their top nine--any of whom would run varsity for any small-school program in the state, and most large-school programs--seven are seniors, and those seniors evidently aim to go out on a mission of conquest and subjugation.
Point man Isaiah DeLaCerda went out with the leaders and stayed there. DeLaCerda didn't go with Tanner Norman when Norman made his break, but DeLaCerda successfully parried and defeated all other attempts to leave him behind. Max Martinez and Jerald Taylor were chief among those who tested DeLaCerda's resolve and came out on the losing end. They join a crowd of very respectable company on the season.
The rest of the Mean Moose, however, did not quite fall into the expected order. Caleb Palmer held down his typical second position on the team, finishing seventh overall. Then things got shuffled a little. Oscar Martinez was third for Alamosa in 11th, Caleb Berlinger fourth in 14th, and scoring closed with Elijah DeLaCerda in 17th, followed closely by Richard Sais in 19th.
There were no tricks nor any late surges. The Mean Moose set up strong in the early stages of the race and held their positioning nicely throughout.
Widefield finished 12 points back in second and The Classical Academy 28 points back in third. Both Widefield and TCA managed a second top-ten finisher on the day in Ryan Outler and Canaan Lamberth, respectively, but it wasn't enough to stem the tide of Alamosa domination.