Making history: Wingate’s 4×800 relay team beats state qualifying mark

RAMAH, N.M.

For the first time in school history, the Wingate track team will be sending its boys’ 4×800 relay team to state in this emerging event.

This will be the second year the New Mexico Activities Association has offered 4×800 as a standard event with Santa Fe Prep winning’s last year’s Class 3A state title.

On Saturday, the Bears beat the 3A state qualifying mark by seven-tenths of a second at the Mustang Round Up 2.0 meet.

“They’re super excited about it,” first-year Wingate coach Preston Chee said. “They’ve worked hard and they put in the time and effort to get qualified and it’s definitely been showing the last two meets.”

Wingate took second behind Zuni, finishing the race in 9 minutes, 45.24 seconds at the Ramah hosted meet.

The team consists of sophomore Lane Armstrong and seniors Rope Allison, Triston Chee and Kermiyah Sherman.

As the team’s strongest middle distance runner, Allison ran the first leg of the race as he led from start to finish.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said of the leg. “It was hard, but I felt like I could have done better if I had someone race in front of me.”

The baton then exchanged hands to Armstrong, as Zuni took the lead for good heading into the halfway mark of the race.

The Wingate sophomore said he tried to keep up his pace and although he got passed he was satisfied with his performance.

“Like Rope said, it was hard but we accomplished our goals that we set at the beginning of the season,” Armstrong said. “We barely beat the qualification mark, and now we’re headed to state.”

Chee then took over and he said he felt comfortable running his two laps before he handed the baton to Sherman.

“My pace was good,” Chee said. “I felt like I ran one of my best 800s this season.”

In the final leg, Sherman said his legs started to give out as his final lap determined if the Wingate team got in.

“I just picked it up the last 150 yards,” he said. “My legs were dead and I just tried by best.”

Sherman said making the state qualification mark puts less pressure on the team as Wingate will close out the regular season on Friday at the Grants Invitational.

The following week, Thoreau will host the District 1-3A meet on April 29 as the top two finishers at the district meet will make state regardless if they meet the state qualification marks.

With bragging rights up for grabs, Tohatchi and Zuni are expected to challenge each other for the district crown in the 4×800 relay race.

“It’s good that we got in because I don’t know how we would finish at the district meet,” he said.

The state qualification is a first for all the members on the team. Sherman said they got close to qualifying as sophomores on the cross-country team.

“We haven’t made state in all of our three years,” he said, while adding that during their junior season the school did not offer sports due to the global pandemic.

“It means a lot, especially making it with my three friends,” Sherman said. “We worked really hard throughout the season.”

“It’s big,” Chee chimed. “I mean, I’ve always dreamed about this, especially making it with my friends.”

After coming close the previous two meets, Allison knew it was possible to meet the state qualification mark.

“We tend to mess around, but today we took it seriously,” he said.

To get qualified, the Wingate coach said his squad shaved off four seconds from its previous best on Saturday.

“I look at split times, and they’ve been in the range of 2:15 to 2:20,” he said. “They’re kind of in the same range, which is five seconds in between.”

With 16 boys and 15 girls, Preston is looking to get more state qualifiers at the district meet.

Nonetheless, he said there are a few athletes that are pretty close to making state qualification marks.

In fact, he said Allison is five seconds off of qualifying in the 800. He also has two sprinters close to qualifying in the open 100.

“If we can’t get them qualified for time, then district is where we’re going to put our focus on qualifying them,” Chee said.

On the girls’ squad, freshman Telica Tom and senior Madison Toledo are the most promising athletes to make state.

Chee said Tom is about 30 seconds off of making the 3200-meter field while Toledo is putting up high marks in the javelin.

Compared to most teams in the district, Chee said is team is pretty thin.

“Other teams have a lot more runners that we do,” he said. “We have five, six distance runners, so we’re working with what we have.

“Even though other teams have way numbers that we do, we’re working hard,” he said.

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