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Lady Cats roll to team title

PORTALES - Kiara Cox had already won girls high jump competition comfortably in Friday's George Love Relays at Greyhound Stadium.

The Clovis High senior cleared five feet, then went for 5-2 only just miss it on each of her three attempts. Still, Cox had a solid day in the meet, helping the Lady Wildcats to an easy victory in the four-school competition with 125 1/2-80 1/2 over runnerup Hobbs.

Cox added a win in the 200 (28.02) and a second-place finish in long jump (15-4 1/2).

"Overall, I think I competed really well," she said. "High jump is my main event, and my goal was five feet. I think by next week I'll get 5-2."

Hobbs took the boys' portion of the meet with 110 points to 91 for the Wildcats. Meantime, Portales finished third on the boys' side and fourth in girls competition.

Most of the teams were not at full strength, still waiting for the addition of basketball players after that season comes to an end later this week.

CHS girls coach Darrel Ray noted that his squad made progress over its season-opening meet on April 23 at Artesia.

"It was a good second outing," he said. "A lot of it was probably the difference in the weather conditions.

"Honestly, all our events got better today, and next week we'll get our basketball kids."

Cox agreed that the weather on Friday - 70s with comfortable breezes - was a major factor in overall improved performances.

"The wind wasn't a big obstacle today," she said. "It's hard when you have 30 mph winds coming at you."

She also won the 200 fairly comfortably, beating Hobbs' Danielle Rodriguez by nearly half a second.

"I definitely had a goal, which was to attack the curves," Cox said of the 200. "After that, my speed kind of comes through."

The Lady Cats won 10 of the 20 events, including three relays, while sophomore Zoe Linn (triple jump, 300 hurdles) also doubled.

The top finishes for Portales' girls were by freshman Savana Heflin, who was second to Clovis' Kaci Cabeldue in the 100 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles, trailing the Lady Cats' Zoe Linn and Madison Aucutt.

For the Clovis boys, senior Jerrick Maldonado posted wins in the 800 (1:57.37) and 1,600 (4:51.22). The Cats and Hobbs each posted eight event wins.

"We've improved," Clovis boys coach Mark Sena said. "The kids responded to a little bit of a challenge we gave them last night.

"The kids competed well today. Pretty much across the board, we improved our times and distances."

Portales' main highlight came from senior Traise Cain, who won three events for the boys - the 110 hurdles (15.54 seconds), high jump (6-2) and pole vault (13-6).

"That's a good sign," PHS track coach Quintin Wilson said. "I was happy with Cade Cameron in the 300 hurdles (47.73 seconds for second place). His time came down about four seconds from last week."

Overall, Wilson said he was generally pleased with the effort.

"We competed, and any time you go out and compete, you've got to be happy," he said. "Clovis and Hobbs are bigger schools than we are, and they have more athletes to draw from. Sometimes, the other guys are just better than us."

Clovis and Portales squads return to action on Friday in quad meets, with CHS going to Hobbs and PHS traveling to Lovington.

 
 
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