On further review, Clovis finishes in first

Immediately after the Wildcat Relays had finished, Clovis High had settled for a second-place finish.

But a scoring error in the Lady Wildcats’ favor switched things up, and the defending Class 5A champions instead went home late with a 72-72 tie in the annual Wildcat Relays.

After the first time points were compiled, La Cueva took a 72-71.5 victory, with Rio Rancho (64.5) fourth, Eldorado (47.5) fifth and Hereford (46.5) sixth.

In that scoring, Marivel Garza of Clovis was incorrectly credited with a third-place tie with Jacy Butler of Hereford at 34-10 in shot put. CHS coach Darrel Ray said Garza had the better No. 2 throw, however, and should have been given sole possession of third place.

When the error was rectified after the meet, Clovis gained half a point and Hereford lost half a point.

By the time the error was discovered, La Cueva was already gone home with the first-place plaque.

“We expected some good competition,” La Cueva coach Jim Ciccarello said. “We thought Clovis was the team to beat, and we still do, and Eldorado’s pretty good too.”

Ray was happy to get the tie, but said La Cueva did beat them in two of the meet’s three phases. The Bears, he said, won the distance and sprint events, while Clovis took the field events with Antiesha Brown winning long jump and taking second in triple jump.

“Our speed looked good early,” Ray said. “Our conditioning didn’t look good late.”

Clovis added Class 5A state qualifiers on Friday in the 100, shot put and the 800 relay. Portales didn’t get on the scoreboard, but qualified its 1,600 medley relay team for the Class 3A state meet.

The Lady Cats are back in action on Friday at Alamogordo.