Tradition continued last Friday at Rio Rancho High School, where the boys and girls track and field teams won both sides of the Rio Rancho Invitational.

The Rams boys added five qualifiers to their growing list of athletes headed to next week’s state meet in Albuquerque, while the Rams girls punched tickets for three more events.

The teams get their final opportunities to qualify athletes at the District 1-5A meet, which starts today at 4 p.m. with a slew of preliminaries and some field finals at Wilson Stadium. The meet concludes Saturday, also at Wilson Stadium, at 9 a.m. The Rams boys garnered 184 points, a healthy 130 more than runner-up Los Lunas. Robertson (46) was third, followed by Moriarty (*45), Gallup (42), Belen (38), Goddard (24), Grants (7) and Raton (5).

Chris Newsome qualified in the two events he won, the long jump (21-8½) and the 110-hurdles (15.08). Josh DeRue was second in the discus (141-10), which qualified him for state, while Gizeh Ibañez, who was second in the 200 with a time of 21.5 seconds, and Nate Wilkins, third in the 100 in 10.62, also qualified.

The Rams boys had a dozen other first-place finishes at their meet, where Thomas Trujillo (10.33 in the 100 and 21.15 in the 200) and Andrew Medina (46-8 in the shot put and 144-7 in the discus) joined Newsome as two-time winners.

Trujillo’s mark eclipsed his school record in the 100, which he set in 2007, by .04 second.

Joe Miano won the 400 (50.35) and joined Wilkins, Trujillo and Ibañez for victories in the 4x100 relay (42.34) and 4x200 (1:28.73).

Miano rounded out his big day by helping the 4x400 relay team, joined by Orion Murphy, Esqui Padilla and Isaac Aragon, to a victory in 3:31.5.

Aragon won the 800 in 2:02), while the Rams had three other field-event wins: Daniel Fant (pole vault/13-3), D.J. Zorn (javelin/178-5½) and Marcus Williams (high jump/5-9).

Rio Rancho had eight runner-up finishes, with three coming in races. The medley relay team (Malcolm Butters, Murphy, Padilla and Clint Bramlette/3:48.4), Rob Selph in the 3,200 (10:28.3) and Brad Steward in the 110-hurdles (15.18) each finished second.

The five field events grabbing second-place honors for the Rams came in the high jump (Newsome/5-9), javelin (Andrew Lujan/171-0), pole vault (Aaron Holt/13-3), shot (Samir Bradley/45- ½) and triple jump (Newsome/40-1¾).

The Rams had three third-place finishes: Selph in the 1,600 (4:33.7), Alex Barela in the discus (132-2½) and Scott Divett in the pole vault (12-3).

Chavez said he’s looking forward to the postseason, although Cibola will be the favorite for 1-5A team honors.

“We’re in the hunt at state for a trophy,” he said. “It’d be nice to end (my career at RRHS) with one. It happened in cross country (Rams were third) and it’d be nice to do it in track.”

The Rams girls amassed 119 points, 44 more than runner-up Los Lunas. Belen (59.5) was third, followed by Goddard (52.5), Robertson (52), Moriarty (38), Gallup (31), Grants (25) and Raton (1),

Individuals Aisha Curry (100/12.4) and Kelsea Hawkins (javelin/110-1½), who finished first and third, respectively, plus the runner-up 4x200 relay team (Chelsie Fournier, Gabby Spence, Chelsea Lopez and Curry/1:47.98) qualified for state.

In addition to Curry’s triumph in the 100, the Rams girls had victories by the 4x100 relay team (Fournier, Spence, Lopez and Curry/50.74), Meaghan Valdez in the 800 (2:29), Pilar Saiz in the pole vault (9-3), Kim Frenz in the high jump (5-0) and CiCi Cordova in the triple jump (31-1¾).

Although coach Hilario Chavez didn’t have their times, the Rams had five runner-up finishes: Tamara Lementino in the 3,200, Spence in the 100, Heather Totschek in the 400, Jenna Padilla in the 1,600, plus the 4x400 relay team (Breannah Schall, Totschek, Nicole Smith and Tatiana Lucero).

Third-place finishes were notched by Ellen Becenti in the 3,200, Smith in the 300-hurdles and Diane Anderson in the 200.

Hilario Chavez said he’s hoping his medley team can win or finish second in the district finals — first- and second-place finishers automatically qualify for state — and get a few more individual events qualified for state.

Splits: Hilaree Chavez, the daughter of the Rams boys head coach, threw the javelin 110-10 at the Lone Star Conference meet last weekend, giving the Eastern New Mexico University athlete her best finish at the LSC meet. Chavez was sixth last year, her father said. Another former Ram, Matt Churchman, finished in a tie for eighth place after a 21-2½ season-best leap in the long jump.

…Sisters Christine and Nicole Zarrella each notched seventh-place finishes at the 18th annual Don Kirby last weekend. Christine had a time of 58.78 in the 400 and Nicole hurled the discus 125-9.

… Carol Waterman threw the javelin a state-qualifying distance of 108-3 at the Alamogordo Qualifier, not 100-3 as erroneously noted in last Thursday’s Observer.