ALBUQUERQUE- You don't have to give credit to the father and son duo of Larry and Hilario Chavez for winning state track and field championships over the weekend, but you certainly credit them for knowing their sport this year.

Realistically, heading into the Class 5A state track and field meet at the University of New Mexico track complex, neither expected to lay claim to a championship - and chances of a third-place trophy were going to be remote.

Tenth-year boys coach Larry Chavez said before the meet that Alamogordo was the clear favorite; his son, first-year girl coach Hilario, said La Cueva was the front-runner. Bingo: Both were correct. And when the final event ended Saturday evening, both Rio Rancho High School teams were in sixth place.

Alamogordo finished with 67 points for the boys' 5A crown; La Cueva (62) was second, followed by Cibola (50), Eldorado (44), Highland (41), the Rams (35), Clovis (27), Manzano (26), Carlsbad (24), Mayfield (19), Hobbs (18), Rio Grande (14), Santa Fe (7), Gallup (6), Oñate, Gadsden and Sandia (5 apiece) and Las Cruces (1).

La Cueva's girls amassed 87 to far out-distance runner-up Clovis (58). Eldorado (57) was third, followed by Manzano (42), Hobbs (40), the Rams (39), Alamogordo (27), Cibola (25), Mayfield and Los Lunas (12 each); Valley (11), Carlsbad (10), Oñate, Highland and Albuquerque High (8 apiece); Santa Fe (5), Sandia (2), and Gallup and Las Cruces (1 apiece).

Lost points hinder chances for boys trophy

"I knew we had a chance of finishing anywhere from third to seventh," Larry Chavez said, knowing had not Thomas Trujillo been disqualified in the 2--meter dash, nor the Rams boys been a combined .61 second faster in two relays, there might have been enough points for a trophy.

Moments after finishing third in the 100 Saturday morning, his marquee event, Trujillo was optimistic about his team's chances for a trophy, in spite of what his coach had said the night before.

"If we keep running the way we are now, I think we'll get a trophy," Trujillo vowed. "As long as we keep it up for our 4x200, 200 open, and the 400, with Joe Miano ..."

But it was not to be: Although the 4x200 turned in its fastest time of the year and finished second, Miano was fourth in the 400 and Trujillo, despite a protest by Chavez, was disqualified in his other sprint when it was ruled he'd stepped three times in a row on the line that divides the lanes.

"He did a good job," Chavez said, especially in light of the fact that Trujillo had been hobbled by a pulled muscle in a preliminary event Friday.

"On that 200, with about 50 meters left, my hamstring just cramped, and it squeezed in," he said of Friday's problem. "I tried, initially, to push it even harder, just to overcome it, but it didn't look like it was going to happen. But I finished the race and made it to finals."

"That was a scare," Chavez said, knowing what Trujillo's absence would mean on Saturday.

But Trujillo said he was at 100 percent on Saturday.

"I felt bad for him," Chavez said of Trujillo's disqualification in the 200.

"I protested (the DQ), took it to jury of appeals -- they said he stepped on the line too many times. The rule is you cannot take three consecutive steps on the line; you can take two, then one back in the lane, and two more. They upheld it. He was third at the finish."

The Rams boys had one champ, as junior Marcus Williams ran his family's streak of high jump titles to five when he cleared 6-7 to win that event Friday morning.

It was his second championship in the event; his older brother, Christopher, won it from 2003-05.

Williams made an unsuccessful bid to clear 7-1 and nab a Class 5A state record.

"His second attempt was pretty close," Chavez said. "His third; he almost had that thing. If he would have just flipper-kicked a little bit, he would have had it."

Williams, a key contributor in the Rams football team's District 1-5A title in the fall and the basketball team's best defensive player in its run to the 5A championship, was second in the long jump (22-5 1/4; 22-5 1/2 won it)) and ran the first leg on the Rams' relay teams that finished second.

Williams, Trujillo, Miano and Matt Churchman teamed to finish the 4x100 in 42.76 -- "That was our best time of the year," Chavez said, noting 6-5 Churchman's height may have been the deciding factor. "We got them, Alamogordo and La Cueva, at the 'lean,'" he said.

Williams, Churchman, Noah Wolfe and Trujillo - all members of the basketball team - also notched a year's-bets time of 1:29.08 for a runner-up finish in the 4x200 relay.

Chavez was asked what he thought led to state-best times.

"I think it's the adrenalin of the state meet," he cited, as one reason. "And we do a couple drills different, stretch them out a little bit more - take a little bit of a chance (of not getting a handoff)." He noted the 4x200 team's time was a mere .2 second off the school record time.

Trujillo had the Rams' only third-place finish, as he ran an 11.49 in the 100.

Miano's fourth-place finish in the 400 (49.91) was the Rams' only other score; first through sixth are the point-getters.

"I knew we had quality; we didn't have quantity," Chavez said again. "Put Trujillo third in 200, and those two relays ... maybe a trophy. But as few people as we had, you have to be perfect.

"Friday afternoon cost a little bit - the mile (1,600) and medley (relays) not making it and the scare with Thomas; Joe Miano barely made the finals in the 400, then came back the next day and got fourth.

"(All) that kind of hindered our chances for a team trophy," he said. "I told them Friday night when we were at the hotel there's a good chance we're out of the running and our next goal was to get as many boys on the trophy stand as possible."

Seems like old times for Frenz and Rams girls

Nicole Zarrella and Kim Frenz each won their second state titles, Zarrella going back-to-back in the discus (126-2) and Frenz's titles separated by a two-year gap.

Frenz was chuckling Saturday morning as she remembered how an Observer headline in 2004 had proclaimed "Frenz and Zarrella lead Rams girls to sixth-place finish."

Although the 2007 meet was far from over, Frenz and Zarrella - a different one - had done it again: They led the Rams girls to a sixth-place finish.

In 2004, it had been Christine Zarrella, now a sophomore on the track team at UNM. Now it was Nicole, her younger sister, also headed to UNM.

Frenz cleared 5-3 for her title; she found it ironic that when she'd won her first state title, as an eighth-grader, she hadn't even been the District 1-5A champ. She made up for that the past three springs, though, and already has set her sights on a third high-jump crown.

Lisa Young ended her fine season with a runner-up finish in the 100-hurdles, turning in a time of 15.24 seconds. Alexandra Darling of La Cueva (15.12) was first in that event, as well as the 300 hurdles and the 400.

"She's always been like the main competition and it's nice to have someone you can run against and always push you," Young said. "Unfortunately, I never got a chance to push her."

Young said the morning breeze affected her a bit: "The wind kind of just blew you over it; you couldn't get as fast as you normally could snap down, it was more of an explosion. It's not my fastest at all, which is sad."

Nonetheless, it beats what happened to her last year, when she said her coaches told her the wrong time for her finals.

"I missed my event, but (Darling) was also right ahead of me last year too," she said. "Every day, I was like, 'What time?' (Last year's coaches) were about four hours off; they said I ran at 4 and I (should have run at 11)."

Next year, Young could find herself a track and field teammate of Zarrella at UNM, she said.

The Rams were third in the medley relay (Frenz, Chelsea Lopez, Bailey Johnson and Meghan Valdez/4:21.22) and the 4x400 relay (Azure Dorsey, Johnson, Amy Salinas and Valdez/4:07.96).

Johnson was fourth in the 300-hurdles (46.97) and Katrina Trout was fourth in the pole vault (9-3).

Geraldine Neru was fifth in the shot put (35-5).

"We had a pretty clean meet," Hilario Chavez said. "We had to be perfect to be in the top three. The girls' attitude and effort were great; that's all we could ask."

Chavez is already looking forward to next year, albeit it without Zarrella and Young, his lone seniors this season.

"We were only three-and-a-half points out of fourth, and 17 points out of third," he said. "With the athletes we have coming back, this experience is going to play a big part in the future."

Only Frenz won't have a Zarrella to team with anymore.

But she seemed determined to win a third high jump crown.