My recap of the 1983 state meet experience came from what I wrote between the meet and our awards banquet. This recap will come directly from media accounts. We were fortunate in that we were followed by outstanding writers from the Hobbs News Sun, Pancho Morris and Manny Marquez as well as our hometown Lovington Daily Leader, Billy Dallas. For years I kept every article ever written about our programs by the three of them but eventually decided enough was enough. Billy was the best because he was a Lovington grad himself and an unlimited reservoir of knowledge about the LHS athletic programs. These summaries are word for word from the 1983 state meet. The only difference is the papers used complete names and I choose to use initials.
FRIDAY'S TRACK PRELIMS
LHS RUNNERS SHINE
"(Albuquerque Special) - Sophomore AB and Junior JH (boys team) led the way for Lovington High School here Friday during the preliminaries of the 1984 New Mexico high school track and field championships at Wilson Stadium.
AB established two individual state records and one school standard while JH was logging a pair of state records.
Lovington's performance Friday was simply spectacular. Altogether, Lovington athletes broke seven Class AAA meet marks and authored four more school records. The Wildcats posted top times in seven of the nine events on slate while the Lady Wildcats led the field in six of nine events.
AB's superb 25.2 effort 200-meter dash was both a state and school record, and her 57.4 clocking in the 400 eclipsed the state mark in that event. Later in the evening, the Lovington sprinted anchored the 1600-meter relay team to a come-from-behind win over Las Vegas Robertson.
When AB got the baton on the anchor leg, she was in fourth place, a good 50 yards behind the lead runner. the super soph brought the stick home with a 57.7 leg to give Lovington 4:07.5 first place timing. PT - CR and TM ran the first three legs.
AB Also ran the leadoff leg on the Lady Wildcats' school and record setting 400-meter relay. Lovington, with AB - PT - TM and RO making up the foursome, blew by the field in 48.54.
In the 800-meter relay, Lovington (PP - PT - TM - and RO) outgunned Robertson with a state and school record 1:44.2 timing. Both the 400 and 800 relay units ran faster times than any of the AAAA qualifiers.
RO also led the list of qualifiers in the 100-meter dash when the LHS senior clicked off a fine 12.56 clocking. PP made it into the finals with a 3rd place 12.88. She also qualified fifth in the 200 with 26.79.
The 800-medley relay team of PP - RO - TM - and PT reached the finals with a fourth place 1:54.37.
Lovington's only disappointment came in the 100-meter low hurdles as NA failed to make the finals. NA had one of the state's top times coming into the state meet.
"We were disappointed that NA didn't qualify, but other than that, we're right where we expected to be," said head coach Dana Anstey. "We had some super efforts in the prelims".
Albuquerque Academy and Robertson 's top challengers for the team title. The Lady Wildcats are the defending state champions.
Lovington athletes also fared well in field events decided on Saturday morning. KB was second in the discus with a throw of 118'7", and teammate AR was fifth with a 105'4" toss."
STATE CHAMPIONS AGAIN
LADY WILDCATS DOMINATE AAA FIELD
"Most of those in attendance would agree that the Lady Wildcats were in a class all by themselves and that this was by far the most powerful AAA girls' track and field team ever assembled in the state of New Mexico. Few, if any, could doubt that Lovington would have indeed made a serious run at the big school title had the Wildcat gals been competing in the class AAAA division.
Lovington, winning a record five first places and posting a record margin of victory in the girls' AAA division, impressed everyone at Albuquerque's Wilson Stadium enroute to a second straight state championship. Along the way, the Lady Wildcats set four state records and three school records.
Saturday's finals of the 1984 State Track and Field Championships ended with Lovington piling up 60 points, it could have easily been more, as the Lady Wildcats were leaving contenders Albuquerque Academy and Las Vegas Robertson far behind. Academy finished in the runnerup spot for the second year in a row with 37 points while Robertson was third with 35.
Lovington, coached by Dana Anstey and Assistant Patti Ann Fort, won its fourth state title and second in the three seasons Anstey has headed up the program. In 1978, the Lady Cats outpointed Albuquerque St. Pius 48-38 for the school's first state championship, and a year later Lovington scored 54 points to out leg both Silver City and Tularosa with 41 each. Last year, the LHS'ers slipped past Academy by a 47 1/2-44 score.
'The key to our success this year was our balance,' Anstey reported after his team accepted the first place trophy. 'We also set our goals of winning district and state again at the first of the season. Everyone on the team made up their minds about what it would take for us to repeat. Our performance at the state meet put the frosting on the cake'.
In remaining undefeated against New Mexico competition for the second year in a row, the Lady Wildcats unleashed a strong contention of sprinters and plenty of speed against the rest of the state. 'Our domination of the sprints and short relays was obviously the key to our success,' Anstey said. 'Our effort there was really remarkable'.
With sophomore ace AB rewriting the record book in twp events and swift senior RO winning a third, the Lady Wildcats were unbeatable. Victories and state record timings in both the 400 and 800 relays were of equal importance.
AB who had anchored the 1600 meter relay team to a thrilling come-from-behind victory in Friday's prelims, won both the 200 meter dash in 25.1 and 400 in 58.84 in the finals. The 200 clocking was a state and school record. She had erased the 400 standard with a blistering 57.4 on Friday.
AB also was a member of Lovington's victorious and most outstanding 400 meter relay team, which blazed to a school and state record 48.6 timing in the prelims before winning the finals with a 49.1. The Lady Cats (AB - PT - TM - and RO) ran a better time than AAAA champ Albuquerque in the event.
The same was true in the 800 meter relay where the quartet of PP - PT - TM and RO captured a 1:43.8 win in the finals after burning a 1:44.2 prelim time. In each instance, the LHS girls were lowering both the state and school records.
AB did have a chance to win the High Point Individual award at the end by anchoring the 1600 meter relay to another win. She was held out however and Tucumcari's MM wound up with the honor with 17 points. AB scored 16 1/2.
Anstey explained. 'AB was sick after the prelims so we took the finals one event at a time. When it came to the 1600 relay we had the championship sewed up so we let her decide if she wanted to run it or not. She didn't feel well so we held her out. Had we needed her, there's no doubt she would have competed and we would have won the race. As it was, another girl got to participate.'
RO added a third individual win in the 100 meter dash with a 12.47 clocking. The veteran RO didn't get out of the blocks well, but she recovered midway through the race and won by a decided margin. 'RO coming from behind to win was outstanding,' remarked Anstey. 'I also feel she would have placed in the long jump if she would have competed. She had a slight pull and we didn't want to take any chances.'
PP - RO - PT and TM also collected a third place 1:53.15 timing in the 800 medley relay, the second best time ever for a LHS team. TM's 60 flat anchor leg highlighted the race. 'When we placed third in the medley we knew we had it made,' Anstey said.
Another who drew plenty of praise from the LHS coach was senior KB. Although KB didn't pick up a first place, she did notch a pair of key runner up showings in the discus and shot out. KB was second in the discus with the second best throw of her career (118'7") and second in the shot with her second best toss, a 36'5" effort.
'KB's performance was the best we've ever had in the field,' Anstey commented. 'And the eight points she scored were very instrumental at the time.'
PP also had a couple of key placings during the evening, a fourth place 12.73 in the 100 meter dash and another fourth place 26.88 clocking in the 200.
Sophomore AR accounted for another point in the discus with a 105'4" throw and the 1600 meter relay team of PT - MA - TM - and KY came up with a fifth place 4:14.98.
'We're very happy to win again and I think all the girls were thrilled that so many people from Lovington came to see them compete,' added Anstey. 'We really appreciated the fans and their support. I'd also like to say that we were really proud of the new bus the school has provided for us.'
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