Cross country teams should scare district competition

A "thriller" it may not be, but it's a scary situation for any District 2-4A team that will try to knock off the Los Alamos Hilltopper cross country program today.

Los Alamos' teams will be seeking their 12th straight 2-4A championships. Neither team has been defeated, or even been hotly challenged, since the current district was created in 2000.

Today's district title races will be at Los Alamos Golf Course. The girls race is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and the boys race at 4:05 p.m. The course will be virtually identical to last week's Los Alamos Invitational meet.

As if the Hilltopper boys needed any extra spark, but they should be riding high off last week's upset victory over Albuquerque Academy, the first time they've defeated the Chargers since 2007.

Los Alamos' girls, meanwhile, are the odds-on favorites to win the state Class 4A title, their third straight and 16th in program history, adding on to their own record.

Los Alamos' girls are scheduled to start Jennifer Mooday, Teresa Sandoval, Liz Turner, Jordan Parker, Amanda Mercer, Mikayla Pulliam, Janali Gustafson, Eliana Riciputi and
Anna Wermer — teams can use up to nine runners at the district meet.

For the Hilltopper boys, they will go in with starters Alexander Romero, Sean Reardon, Nick Hill, Zak Kennison, Daniel Romero, Colin Hemez, Orion Staples, Mike Walker and Aaron Bao.

The Hilltopper boys have a tradition of wearing Halloween-style socks in this meet, which is typically the team's closest competition to Halloween, not that things need to be any spookier for the rest of the district.

While Los Alamos should win both races handily, it will be interesting to see if the teams can finish by getting all nine of their runners into the top 10 individually.