Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions, Gallup qualifies three athletes for all-star meet
Navajo Times | Quentin Jodie
Gallup’s Brady Thompson goes through his throwing motion during Saturday’s discus competition at the Angelo DePaolo Invitational in Gallup. Thompson earned two qualifications (discus and javelin) to compete at Monday’s Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions in Albuquerque.
WINDOW ROCK
The annual Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions is being held today at the UNM Track and Soccer Complex in Albuquerque.
The all-star meet attracts the best track athletes in New Mexico regardless of class. The field events begin at 3 p.m. and the running finals will start at 5:15 p.m.
Three athletes from Gallup High were invited to the prestigious meet, as athletes were selected based on their top marks and times this season.
Senior Theodore Roundface qualified in the 1600-meter run while juniors Brady Thompson and Tiana Tom earned invitations in the throwing events. Tom made the shot put field and Thompson is participating in two events: discus and javelin.
“I think it’s cool and awesome to be invited,” said Thompson, who transferred to Gallup at the start of the school year from Maple Mountain High School in Springville, Utah.
“I’ll see some of the best throwers in the state, and I’m just proud of myself to get invited,” Thompson said.
“I’m just excited more than anything,” Roundface said. “I mean, I get to race against those (top) guys and I feel like I can hang with them.”
Roundface comes into Monday’s meet seeded seventh among eight runners in the mile race with a season best of 4:41.05.
Thompson is seeded ninth in the discus and 11th in the javelin with marks of 133-feet, 8 inches in the discus and 144-feet in javelin.
The Gallup thrower, however, improved on those registered marks at Saturday’s Angelo DePaolo Invitational. Thompson set season-bests with throws of 134-0 in the discus and 152-03 in the javelin.
Tom is seeded 11th in the shot put. Her best throw came two weeks ago when she had a 31-05.25 effort at the Farmington Invitational.
“Tiana has been only throwing for a month,” Gallup coach Kyle Benally said. “For her to throw that far is pretty remarkable. She’s also a sprinter and she does wrestling, jujitsu and runs cross country so she’s just a complete athlete.”
The Gallup coach also praised the marks turned in by Thompson and he acknowledged the progress of Roundface.
“Theodore is a lot faster this year,” Benally said. “We’ve made some changes to his overall performance and it’s been beneficial.
“Brady, our discus and javelin thrower, has come out of nowhere,” he added. “He’s already qualified for state in the javelin and he’s continuing to lengthen his mark each meet.”
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