The New Mexico college football season was not quite over.
New Mexico Junior College reached the National Junior College Athletic Association playoffs as No. 2 in the first-ever national post-season tournament. The Broncos entered the game as the nation’s leading rushing players after a 10-1 regular season.
They hosted number 3 in northwest Mississippi on Sunday (yes, Sunday) at Roswell’s Wool Bowl. Her 49-30 win sends her to the national championship game on December 17 against the No. 1 Iowa Westerns in Little Rock, Ark. Iowa Western defeated No. 4 Snow, Utah on Saturday at 30:29.
A win on December 17 would be the state’s first and only national college football championship.
There are also extended seasons for eight teams from the Mountain West teams as well as the Colorado School of Mines. Mines, the top seed in the Super Region Four, is taking part in the NCAA Division II playoffs.
The champions of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference are in the national semifinals for the first time in school history after beating Bemidji State and Angelo State. The Orediggers (12-1), who beat the New Mexico Highlands 31-21 on September 11, will travel to Georgia on Saturday to play against the number 2 of the overall seeded Valdosta State.
LaTora Duff’s 24 points led the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team to a 73-66 win over the state of New Mexico at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces on Sunday afternoon. It ended a season sweep for UNM.
The Lobos men will go into their own battle against the Aggies at The Pit on Monday night.
The question arises: when was the last time the north swept the south in the Rio Grande tire rivalry?
Quite simply – it was the last time they each played a full season, the pre-pandemic 2019-20 campaign that started like a career saver for then Lobos coach Paul Weir. It was part of UNM’s 15-3 start with a deep and talented roster.
Although it was only two years ago, not a single player wearing the UNM uniform had ever played in the rivalry until the win at Las Cruces last week.
The Pecos League will use a format with 16 teams, two conferences and four divisions in 2022.
At least that’s how it is planned from the first week of December.
If we know anything about the independent baseball league, it is this: Things change, often without warning. It could well be a 16-team league – or it could be 12, maybe 18, maybe without divisions and two conferences. We just have to wait for the opening day.
One thing is certain: the Santa Fe Fuego is coming back. In addition to Trinidad, Garden City and Colorado Springs, the Fuego belong to the Mountain North Division. The Mountain South will have Roswell and Alpine alongside expansion teams Austin (the Weirdos; no kidding) and Weimar (the Hormigas).
The league announced a schedule last week with Santa Fe playing a schedule of 50 games, 29 of which are at home at the Fort Marcy Ballpark. The team will play the vast majority of their home games on the weekends, with 17 of their appointments being played at home on June 25th.
Monday is reserved for travel.
The season opener will be against Roswell on June 1st, the first of four games in a row against Roswell. All but four games will be played against Mountain Conference teams, the only exceptions being two straight home games against Tucson and Wasco in mid-June.
Chloe Grieco, an 11-year-old from Santa Fe, earned All-America status when she finished seventh in the 11-12 age group at the Amateur Athletic Union National Cross Country Championships in Charlotte, NC on Saturday. Grieco, who competes for Albuquerque’s Cougar Track and Cross Country Club, ran the 3-kilometer race in 11 minutes and 11.55 seconds.
Capital’s Jaguar Invitational went through a schedule change, which also meant the wrestling season started a week earlier than usual.
When Al Armendariz’s boys and girls basketball tournament was moved to this weekend, Capital decided to move the wrestling tournament to Saturday.
Belen won the team title with 189.5 points, followed by West Las Vegas (163), the hosts Jaguars (126) and Santa Fe High (119). It was a good day for Northern wrestlers as they won 12 of the 14 weight classes.
The two city schools combined seven individual champions, with the capital wrestlers winning four divisions.
On the girls’ side, Los Alamos won the tournament title with 69 points, while Moriarty had 59 and Capital 39. It was the first time that Capital and Santa Fe High took part in the girls ‘tournament, even though they previously had girls’ wrestling in their program.
The Jaguars had five wrestlers, with Libri Hernandez-Carmona (107 pounds) and Alyssa Sandoval (114) winning their weight classes. The Demons had two, with Eden Sladery (100) and Alana Juarez (138) taking second place in their respective divisions.
Comments are closed.