Sophie Bair completed her prep cross-country career in rarified air.
The Santa Fe Prep senior had a performance of a lifetime Saturday at the state cross-country championships at Albuquerque Academy. Bair used the final 1 1/2 miles to break away from a field of four runners in the Class 3A girls race to claim her first individual state title. She completed the 5-kilometer course in 18 minutes, 56.7 seconds — 28.7 seconds ahead of teammate and runner-up Pippa Barrett.
The duo also paced Santa Fe Prep to its third straight team title, easily beating Albuquerque Cottonwood Classical Prep by a 29-96 lowest-score-wins format.
Her win was the last of four she had on the season, and should have been five if not for the scoring system that marked her 0.10 of a second behind Barrett, with whom she was holding hands as they crossed the finish in stride.
Bair said she deliberately started the race slowly just to gauge the field but made her charge at about the halfway mark of the course. Once she did that, Bair said she changed her mindset from one of work to one of joy for the last part of her run.
She relied on the wisdom of world-renowned marathoner Eliud Kipchoge to guide her.
“He, like, always smiles,” Bair said. “So, at the 2-mile mark, I was like, ‘Why is this so serious?’ So, I smiled and it was fun from there.”
It was even more fun when she brought home a championship medal along with a third blue trophy for the program.
Honorable mentions
* It was a good week to be a Blue Griffin, as eighth grader Aidan Nickson played a key role in Santa Fe Prep’s rally from a 2-0 deficit in a shootout win over Albuquerque Sandia Prep on Saturday in the Class 1A/3A boys state soccer championship. Hickson scored twice in the second half to erase the deficit and send the match to its eventual shootout conclusion.
* St. Michael’s senior Sophia Miera capped a stellar girls soccer career with her 61st goal of the season that proved to be the only tally in a 1-0 win over Albuquerque Bosque School in the 1A/3A girls soccer title match. Miera finished her career with 148 goals as a Lady Horsemen.
