It was cloudy and cold at Moriarty High School last Saturday, but that didn’t dull the excitement of the annual Pedro and Mateo Sandoval Memorial track and field meet.
Hundreds of student-athletes competed in the annual event. The meet included individual running and relay races, along with jumpers, pole vaulters, and throwers.
Moriarty’s boys’ and girls’ squads won the meet with 128.5 points and 159 points, respectively, against five other schools, including Estancia.
But for many, the outcome of the competition took a back seat to the spirit of the event.
“It’s special,” Moriarty coach Gabe Romero said. “It’s a little bit more important than any other meet.”
The meet honors two Moriarty student-athletes, Pedro “Pete” Sandoval and his younger brother Mateo, who died in a car accident on their way to school in January 2020. At the start of the event, the PA announcer’s voice was noticeably filled with emotion as she welcomed the competitors and the crowd.
The first running event of the day was the 4×800-meter race. Moriarty’s Danny Gonzales ran one of the legs of the race. He said he’s a relative of the Sandoval brothers.
“They’re distant cousins of mine,” he said. “They left a legacy, you know, that’s something that any student-athlete should aspire to.”
There were many standout highlights of the meet, including; Moriarty’s Emily Russell winning the girls’ 100m dash, Victoria Alvarado winning the 300m hurdles, Presley Edwards taking first in the long jump, and Makenzie Butler winning the pole vault. Moriarty’s boys placed first in the 4x200m and the 4x400m relay races; Moriarty’s girls took first in the 4×100, 4×200 and the 4×400 races; Isaac Dominguez won both the 110m and the 300m hurdles; and Corban Pearce won the discus throw.
Estancia’s Jhenna Valencia won the girls’ javelin throw, achieving a personal best and qualifying for state; and Josh Calhoon won the boys’ pole vault and the triple jump.
In a rare turn of events, Moriarty’s Rachel Gustafson ran the girls’ 3,200m race by herself because there were no other entrants.
“I heard someone yell, ‘Quick, they’re catching you!’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, right,’” Gustafson said, giggling.
Moriarty’s track and field head coach Peter Romero, who created the memorial meet in 2021, said it’s a way to keep the memory of the Sandoval brothers alive.
“These were not just two ordinary kids,” he said. “They were two extraordinary kids that walked our hallways. Their work ethic and the people they were, they were great Pintos, they were great athletes, they were great humans.”
The final event of the day, the boys’ 1,600m sprint-medley relay, was close throughout until Moriarty’s Bruno Vaquera took the baton for the final leg and shifted into overdrive to win the race.
“As soon as you get that baton you just gotta go all out,” Vaquera said after the race, still trying to catch his breath. “It’s really special to know that all my teammates put in the hard work, and at the end, I could make a difference, just like Mateo and Pete would’ve done.”