Lady Cats open track season in Ralph Bowyer Invite

CARLSBAD — The Clovis High girls track team opened its season in Thursday’s Ralph Bowyer Invitational, as did the Portales boys and girls.

No team scores were available on the girls’ side at press time on Friday. Meantime, the Rams finished with 20 team points.

CHS girls coach Darrel Ray surmised that his squad finished “third or fourth” in the meet.

“We’re a couple of clicks behind everybody,” Ray said. “We haven’t had great weather so far and we haven’t done a good job of conditioning yet.”

Highlighting the Lady Cats’ performances was a win by junior Madison Parkin in pole vault at 10 feet, six inches. Parkin also placed in both hurdles events.

Meantime, junior Natalia Zamora-Travis was third in high jump, while Gabrielle Foggie (26.68) and Nariah Travis (28.94) ran 2-3 in the 200. The Lady Cats were third in three relays and fourth in the other.

Ray said the Lady Cats, scheduled to compete along with the boys in a season-opening meet on Feb. 26 in Texas, probably were a bit behind after canceling out of that event.

“We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “We see a lot of potential, although the results haven’t shown it yet.”

Meantime, Michael Riess and Manny Chavez led the way for the PHS boys with second-place finishes — Riess in the 1,600 (4:45.94) and Chavez in javelin (143-8). Also Nehemiah Yorfee was third in shot put (37-7 1/2).

For the girls, Angelina Maestas was second in javelin (93-2), Emma Hurren claimed third in the 800 (2:31.28) and Kadence Reeves (1:07.68) and Zoe Roy (1:08.73) went 3-5 in the 400.

Tennis — Roswell Goddard’s teams edged Clovis High by identical 5-4 scores in dual matches played on Tuesday in Roswell.

Still, first-year CHS coaches Tristan Pautler for the boys and Rylie Garza for the girls said they’re seeing progress.

“We’re getting better,” Pautler said. “Our footwork is the biggest priority we need to focus on.

“It’s been four or five weeks (since the start of practice), and some of these kids have never played tennis before. They’re realizing there’s some strategy involved.”

Junior David Case at No. 1, sophomore Topher Oaks at No. 5 and senior Ethan Wheeler at No. 6 posted singles wins for the Wildcats, including a 10-7 third-set supertiebreaker for Case over the Rockets’ Grant Janway. The doubles win for the Cats was posted by Wheeler and senior Zach Morris at No. 3.

The only on-court win for the Lady Wildcats came from senior Charlese Phillips at No. 4, a 6-0, 6-0 blanking of Goddard’s Annahie Lujan. The Lady Rockets managed to eke out the team victory despite having to forfeit at Nos. 5 and 6 singles and No. 3 doubles.

Garza was eager to see how her squad fared in an eight-team weekend tournament hosted by Roswell High.

“This weekend will be a good learning experience,” she said. “I’m excited to see (our) improvement.”

On Tuesday, the Cats and Lady Cats welcome Portales to the CHS courts for 3 p.m. duals.