LA duo win high-point male athlete award

FORT WINGATE, N.M.

With his favorite event out of the picture, Cesar Montano put his energy and moxie to use in other disciplines.

The Laguna-Acoma senior turned in a superb performance at the Wingate Shash Invitational last Saturday that earned him the high-point male athlete, an award he shared with teammate Andrew Corley.

“Pole vault is my thing so I was out there to have fun,” Montano said when asked about his thoughts about sharing the high-point award.

Montano finished second in the 100-meter dash and javelin throw while placing third in the long jump, high jump and discus events.

Montano set a PR in the 100 with a 12.04 effort and finished behind event winner Blake Wallace of Gallup. Wallace won the event in 11.76.

In the javelin, his best throw was 121-10 as teammate Cameron Sanchez bested him by 18 feet.

In his other events, Montano cleared 5-04 in the high jump, leaped 17-02.50 in the long jump and tossed the 1.6 kg disc 99-00.

“I am 14 feet away of qualifying for state in the javelin and I’m a half-second off in the 100,” Montano said, “but I want to focus on pole vault. I did really bad last year at state and hopefully I can win state this year.”

On March 18 Montano met the state qualification standards for the pole vault in Class 3A with a 12-00 effort at the Farmington Invitational but with a new pole he’s bettered that mark a few times in practice.

“I have a 14-foot pole now,” he said. “I’m going over two feet over what I’ve done at Farmington.”

Montano said he’s feeling confident about qualifying for state in his other events but the high-point athlete award caught him by surprise since Corley turned in a couple of first place performances.

His teammate won gold in the triple jump and high jump. In the triple jump Corley set a new personal best of 37-04.25 while in the high jump he cleared 5-04 on his first attempt, which earned him the first place medal.

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