On April 25th and 26th, one of the biggest meets in New Mexico, the Richard Harper Memorial Track Meet, was hosted at Albuquerque Academy. 28 schools from across New Mexico were present. Hundreds of athletes competed in a variety of events. Chargers blazed to the finish line and jumped long and high to the applause of onlookers.
Our Charger boys and girls put up a good fight. Overall, the boys came fourth and the girls ended up taking the victory, coming first. The boys managed to earn 6 podium finishes. Our girls earned 11 podium finishes and 8 first-place finishes. The full meet results can be viewed here.
Head Track and Field head coach Adam Kedge offered his perspective on the meet: “The Harper Meet brings together the best of the best from all classifications around the state.” He was very impressed with the girls’ performances with them taking first place. He hopes they will continue their form into state. While the boys didn’t do as well as the girls overall, they made a great effort. They’ll be looking forward to having an even better state meet.
On the distance side, Nicholas Ponte ’26 came in second in the 3200-meter race with 9:19.00, losing to Rio Rancho’s Charlie Vause class of 2025 by 8 seconds. He also placed third in the 1600-meter race with 4:19.86. Elliot Hickey ‘26, current 3200-meter school record holder, came up just short in the 800-meter race, placing second with 1.58.73 and losing out by less than 4 seconds.
Our sprinters put up some good performances, even though they were unable to make it to the final. Our jumpers managed to leap far. Gage Conway ‘26 came in third place in the triple jump with 43-03-0.5 feet. Young talent, Santiago Begay ‘28, came in 8th place in the long jump and 4th place in the triple jump. He ended up state qualifying in long jump and triple jump with marks of 20-9 feet in long jump and 42-8 feet in triple jump.
Our relay teams came out strong, as well. Our sprint medley team came in third, with Kai Noyes ‘26, Gage Conway ‘26, Santiago Begay ‘28, and Callahan Camp ‘28 clocking in at 3:39.29. Our 4×8 team ended up taking first at Harper, with Leo McGuire ‘26, Ethan Myers ‘26, Nicholas Ponte ‘26, and Elliot Hickey ‘26 coming in at 8:02.92 and setting a new meet record! All these performances are going to be key at state for the boys. They are looking forward to facing Los Alamos and Artesia in the coming week.
Our Harper-winning girls had even more great performances! Grace Erinle ‘27, last year’s state runner-up in the 200-meter race, came in first in the 200-meter dash by a big margin, clocking in at 24.89 seconds. She also swept the triple jump with 38-1.25 feet and placed third in the long jump. Adding to the jumpers, Antonella Begay ‘26 came first in the high jump with 5 feet. And Julia Stein ‘28 placed third in the triple jump. Both the girls’ 4×1 and 4×2 relay teams ended up finishing in first place.
Our distance girls gave it their all. Anna Hastings ‘26 came second in both the 3200-meter and 1600-meter races. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to knock down this year’s state cross country winner, Eldorado’s Gianna Rahmer, class of 2028. Addison Julian ‘26 took home the 800 meter race by a nice margin. They’ll most certainly continue their streak of good form into the most intense stages of the season.
The Harper meet was fantastic, but it’s not the end of the season yet! If you have time, come out and support the Chargers at the NMAA 4A state track and field meet on May 16th and May 17th at UNM. You’ll see more amazing performances from our Chargers, and maybe even some gold medals and blue state trophies. Wonderful job, Chargers. You always make us proud.
