ALBUQUERQUE — Clovis High boys coach Darren Kelley acknowledged his team had hopes of a third-place finish and a trophy from this weekend’s Class 5A state track meet at the University of New Mexico.

altCMI photo: Rick White
Clovis senior Kenny Betts finished second in the Class 5A in the boys shot Saturday at the state track meet in Albuquerque. Betts had a top throw of 51 feet, 11 inches. Rio Rancho's Alex Oluyitan won the event with a throw of 53-1/4.

He thinks, though, the Wildcats got about as much out of their team as they could with a fourth-place showing.

The Cats capped their weekend by winning the 1,600 relay and moving ahead of Volcano Vista in the team standings with 41 points to 37 for the Hawks, who were sixth in the event. La Cueva, in third place, was nine points away.

For much of Saturday, the Cats were third in the standings, but Kelley knew it would be tough to stay there. Rio Rancho Cleveland ran away with the team title, scoring 94 points to 58 for runnerup Alamogordo.

altCMI photo: Rick White
Clovis sophomore Kamal Cass finished third in boys triple on Saturday at the state Class 5A track meet in Albuquerque with a effort of 44 feet, 1/2 inch. Hobbs' Isaiah Lintz won the event by going 45-5 1/2.

“That’s about as good as we could do,” Kelley said. “We just couldn’t hold them off, but we couldn’t have run much better.”

Meantime, the CHS girls finished with two seconds and a third in the final three events and claimed fifth place with 43 points. Cleveland also took the girls title, scoring 103 points to 70 for second-place Eldorado.

The Cats relied on their relays to keep them among the leaders on Saturday, capped with a winning time of 3:22.16 in the mile relay with Eddie Trevizo, Jonathan Johnson, Kamal Cass and Traivon Sopila.

altCMI photo: Rick White
Clovis High senior Shatia Phillips, right, edges sophomore teammate Sasha Smith for fifth place in the Class 5A 100 meters. Phillips later came back to post a second-place finish in the 200 as the Lady Wildcats finished fifth overall.

It was the first time in 12 years Kelley’s mile relay had won at state.

“We’d been second like four times,” he said.

The 400 and 800 relays, meantime, came in third.

“The thing I was most excited about was how the relays competed,” Kelley said. “They worked their butts off all year, and it paid off in the end.”

Senior Kenny Butts, who won discus in a bit of an upset on Friday, came in second in shot put on Saturday at 51-11. Rio Rancho’s Alex Oluyitan won it at 53-0 1/4.

Cass, meantime, came into triple jump seeded second and finished third despite easily going a personal best at 44-0 1/2. Nainoa Biggs of Cleveland beat him by less than an inch for second place, while Hobbs’ Isaiah Lintz won easily at 45-5 1/2.

The girls got a second from senior Shatia Phillips in the 200 (25.65 seconds) and Gladys Miranda in the 3,200, and a third in the 1,600 relay in 4:05.81.

Official times in the 3,200 were not available late Saturday night, but coach Mike Hankins said she ran around 11:51.8.

“We scored well at the end of the meet,” he said. “To me, our highlight today was Shatia Phillips going second in the 200 and Gladys in the two-mile.

“We had a couple of hiccups, but the kids competed their tails off.”

The Lady Cats also placed third in the 800 relay and sixth in the 400 relay, while freshman Shelby Jones earned a fifth-place finish in javelin competition at 111 feet, 7 inches.