Healthy Lady Cats wrest title
Things fall into place, helping Clovis earn second 5A crown in three years
May 20, 2008 11:33 pm
Clovis High girls track coach Darrel Ray acknowledged Cibola was the solid favorite going into Class 5A girls state competition last weekend in Albuquerque.
Still, he knew the Lady Wildcats would have a chance to win, if things went well.
Ray said he and his wife, Pam, looked at the entries and tried to score the meet ahead of time. They had it going either way, by a matter of points.
It came down to Saturday’s 1,600 relay finale, with the teams tied. Clovis’ Caitlin Waters had just enough to hold off her Cibola counterpart on the anchor leg and give the Lady Cats a two-point win and their second 5A title in three years.
While the Cougars dominated meets during the season, Ray said his squad had been working around numerous injuries.
“We didn’t start getting all our personnel back until just before district,” Ray said. “At Lovington (in the Ross Black Relays on May 2) was the first time we ran with full personnel.”
Waters had a big day on Saturday, defending her 5A championship in the 800, then running the anchor leg on the 1,600 medley relay less than 30 minutes later before finishing up in the mile relay.
Ray noted the Lady Cats beat favored Eldorado in Friday’s 1,600 relay preliminary.
“You don’t know how much confidence that gave us,” he said.
They didn’t beat the Eagles on Saturday, but did what they had to do to win the meet.
