Peter Dindinger — NMMI Sports Press

ALBUQUERQUE — There was plenty of excitement for the New Mexico Military Institute Colt track team on Day 1 of the Class A-3A state meet at the University of New Mexico Track & Field and Soccer Complex on a toasty Friday afternoon.

In the long jump, Jaikayo Brown made the first appearance on the podium for NMMI after finishing fourth with a distance of 20 feet, 3 1/2 inches.

Danylo Starepravo came in ninth place with a mark of 17-10.75.

Emily Spaniel then became the first female to step up to the podium for the Colts as she posted a throw of 82-08 to finish sixth in the discus.

In the boys’ 1,600-meter run, Lance Miller raced his way into second place after posting a time of 4:39.99.

He narrowly missed first place, which was won by Zuni’s Kameron Eustace with a time of 4:33.23.

Miller’s time was also a personal best.

“I felt it was pretty good. We started off really fast and I think that was a good thing because I kind of just kept the pace,” Miller said after his race. “Overall, I felt good in the meet. It was a little hot, but it was a good race against the guys I took cross country championships with as well.

“It was good revenge for me and Kameron for beating (Tohatchi’s) Melvin (Scott). Second place in the mile feels really good since I pulled my hamstring last year running the same race.”

In the boys’ 4x100-meter relay, NMMI posted the sixth best time, fourth best in its heat, as the team clocked in at 45.57 to qualify for the finals.

Alexandra LaBee sprinted her way into second place in her heat during the 100-meter hurdles prelims. Her time of 18.01 was the fourth-best of the day, which also lands her a spot in the finals.

Christopher Vega claimed the top spot in the 110-meter hurdles prelims with a time of 16.62 to earn the qualification for Saturday’s finals.

LaBee and Vega finished one second faster than their usual times in the hurdles competition.

Vega also earned a qualifying time of 44.85 in the 300-meter hurdle preliminaries. His time was third-best in the first heat.

The relay team of LaBee, Daniela Laporte, Christina Robertson and Kelsye Wallace ran a collective time of 1:57.97 to finish fourth in the second heat of the 4x200-meter relay.

NMMI’s time also earned a qualification into the finals.

The Colt boys also earned a qualifying time in the 4x200-meter relay after clocking in at 1:37.00 to finish fourth in the second heat of the prelims.

In the 1,600-sprint medley, the Colt girls put together a time of 4:44.79 to earn a qualification into the finals. The time was the third-best in the second heat.

The girls narrowly missed out on qualifying in the 4x400-meter relay with an overall time of 4:45.80, which was fifth-best in the second heat behind Tucumcari’s time of 4:45.37.

Action resumes at 8 a.m. Saturday.

NMMI has a good chance to get some more athletes on the podium.

“We have a lot of good events coming. Tomorrow will be a very busy day,” said NMMI head coach Jan Olesinski. “They’re doing great. So far they’ve performed pretty well.

“You never know. This is what state’s all about. People react differently.”

>> Live results will be uploaded, when they become available, to liverunningresults.com.