Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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A bunch of area athletes will be competing in this weekend’s state powerlifting championships in Rio Rancho, including a few contenders for a first-place trophy. Logan junior Haden Judd, also a standout on the Longhorns’ track team, is a defending state champion in powerlifting at 148 pounds and is ranked second in the latest standings of that weight class. He’s behind only Corbin Barrera of Legacy Academy, who has lifted a total of 1,060 pounds in the bench press, dead lift and squat. Judd has lifted a total of 945 pounds. Other Logan boys...
The Tucumcari High School cheerleading squad finished fifth during the Class 3A championships on Saturday at The Pit in Albuquerque. The Lady Rattlers squad scored 75.73 points in the first performance and 62.8 points in the second for a total of 138.53. The THS girls finished just behind fourth-place Robertson and its 140.63 points. District foe Ruidoso won the state title with a total score of 162.83 points, well ahead of runner-up Cobre and its 158.63. Raton finished third with 151.6 points. THS coach Jolene Garcia said her team continues...
It’s official — Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory makes the best feta cheese in the United States. The company earned a second-place finish in March in the World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin. That was an improvement from its third-place finish in the world in 2022. The competition is held every two years. The only entry in the feta cheese division to top Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory was Team Krusa from Arla Foods Krusa of Denmark, which finished runner-up in 2022. Team Krusa earned a score of 99.4 points, ahead of Tucu...
Haden Judd won five individual events, powering the Logan boys team to a team title at the 17-team Logan Varsity Meet on Saturday. Judd won the 200-meter dash (23.36 seconds), 400-meter dash (51.62 seconds), 110-meter hurdles race (16.42 seconds), pole vault (14 feet, 6 inches) and long jump (20-4). That enabled the Longhorns to edge Farwell, Texas, by 86-84 in the race for total team points. Fernando Ureste of Tucumcari won two individual events for the Rattlers — the 1,600-meter run (4:57.76) and 3,200-meter run (10:31.05). Tucumcari f...
Tucumcari had a rough week, suffering three losses at the West Las Vegas Baseball Tournament. In the tournament finale Saturday, district foe East Mountain grabbed a 9-0 lead before the Rattlers got on the scoreboard during a 12-4 loss. Tucumcari coach George Montano noted his team started slow, stranding runners on base in the first two innings without scoring. East Mountain (7-6) rapped 15 hits during the game. Tucumcari starting pitcher Kamren Apodaca and reliever Josh Griego each gave up four earned runs. “Ham started the game and threw w...
Tucumcari scored 13 runs in the final three innings to secure a 20-8 victory over Mora on Saturday and capture third place in the West Las Vegas Softball Tournament. Caylee Benavidez and Harley McKinney of the Lady Rattlers, who finished 2-1 during the weekend, each were named to the all-tournament team. Tucumcari head coach CJ Oglesby said he could have selected six players to the all-tourney team, including also Alexis Ramirez, Mia Estrada, Haisley Huffman and Kylee Carmichael. "But the play of Caylee and Harley stood out," he said. "Not...
Logan blew two late leads during a baseball doubleheader loss Friday to Gateway Christian at Roswell. In the first game, the Longhorns led 7-5 at the top of the final inning, but the Warriors rallied for three runs to win it 8-7. In the nightcap, Logan commanded a 10-1 lead in the sixth but lost it completely when Gateway scored 13 runs in the bottom half of that inning during a 14-10 loss. “Our youth and inexperience in big games showed a little yesterday,” Logan coach Kyle Griffiths said. “We have some new pieces that we are working into...
The Logan softball team hit well but dropped a season-opening doubleheader Friday at Dora by scores of 29-23 and 20-13. For the Lady Longhorns in the first game, Camryn Cantrell went 3-for-5 hitting with a walk, a double, four stolen bases and four runs scored. Marilyn Moreno went 2-for-2 with a double and a triple and six RBI. She also reached base additional times on three walks and being hit by a pitch. In the second game, Presley Griffitt went 3-for-3 with a double and four RBI. She also was hit by a pitch and scored four runs....
The Quay County Health Council is offering free Narcan training at 5:30 p.m. April 9 at the Tucumcari Middle School Library. The training will last about an hour and will show how to identify an opioid overdose, the laws that protect citizens who are trying to save a life, how to use Narcan and and follow-up care for overdose victims. Free Narcan tests — a $140 value — will be provided to each participant. The health council also will offer free lockboxes to safety store medications or edibles in the home to keep those substances away from chi...
The Quay County Health Council will host a suicide-prevention program from noon to 1 p.m. April 10 at the San Jon Senior Center. The council has two contractors training in suicide prevention called QPR, or question, persuade and refer. The free program provides information to participants on questions to ask, appropriate response and resources available when they have friends or family members showing signs of self-harm. Death rates by suicide from 2015 to 2020 in Quay County were among the highest in New Mexico....
New Mexico’s elections recently were ranked best in the nation by the Elections Performance Index, a project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data and Science Lab described as “a non-partisan, objective measure of U.S. election administration.” The news comes as county clerks in the state are preparing for the June 4 primary election. Early voting in the primary begins May 7. The rankings, released in late March and based on the 2022 midterm elections, use a variety of performance indicators measuring aspects of electio...
Federal charges were filed Friday against a South Carolina suspect accused of fatally shooting a New Mexico State Police officer from Logan. If convicted of the more serious charge, the suspect faces up to life in prison or the death penalty. More details about the killing and the suspect’s capture also were revealed during the news conference and a federal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque. Jaremy Smith, 33, was federally charged with carjacking resulting in death and discharge of a firearm during and in rel...
A motorist who struck and killed a woman on a scooter in Tucumcari last week was driving with a revoked license. Jennifer Tackett of Tucumcari died of her injuries at Trigg Memorial Hospital after she was struck on her scooter at South Third Street and Route 66 Boulevard about 6:30 p.m. March 18, according to a report by Tucumcari Police Department officer Tyler Davis. The GMC Sonata pickup that struck Tackett and her scooter was driven by Dennis Christopher Benavidez, 32, of Tucumcari. (Online court documents also list an address in Portales f...
About 60 people - many of them Impact Wind employees or students - attended a ceremonial ribbon-cutting Wednesday to celebrate Mesalands Community College's partnership with the Houston-based company. The ceremony took place in the college's wind-energy building in front of a wind-turbine nacelle used for training future turbine technicians. Mesalands and Impact announced the collaboration last month to train technicians through the Global Wind Organization certification program. The...
Two of the biggest stars on the Logan boys and Tucumcari girls track teams seemed to be in midseason form during the season-opening Rattler Relays meet Saturday at Rattler Stadium. Logan junior Haden Judd, who won multiple events at the Class A state championships last year, won three on Saturday, including the triple jump in school-record distance. Tucumcari senior Haisley Huffman, a two-time Class 3A champ in the long jump and defending state champion in the triple jump, won both those events...
The Tucumcari softball team won the consolation title Saturday in the Lady Lion Softball Classic tournament by blasting the host team 17-0. Lady Rattlers starting pitcher Mia Estrada earned the complete-game shutout, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out 11. “Mia has been locked in,” Tucumcari coach CJ Oglesby said. Estrada and Harley McKinney were named to the all-tournament team. Tucumcari scored in every inning against Santa Rosa, totaling 17 hits. McKinney went 5-for-5 with three RBI, two doubles and a triple. Haisley Huf...
Junior guard Caylee Benavidez earned first-team all state honors in Class 3A girls basketball in addition to being all-district. Junior guard July Lafferty was an honorable mention all-state in addition to being named first-team all-district. Also earning first-team Class 4-3A honors for the Lady Rattlers were senior guard Haisley Huffman, senior center Kirksey Smith and sophomore center Kyla Lopez. Senior guard Alexis Ramirez was an honorable mention in district honors. All-state honors by the New Mexico High School Coaches Association...
Logan senior guard Brock Burns earned all-state honors in Class 1A boys basketball as well as all district honors that were announced last week after his team advanced to the state semifinals. Sophomore strong forward Hayden Bruhn earned second-team all-state honors as well as being all-district. Sophomore center Mason Wallin earned honorable mention in the all-state listings in addition to being an all-district center. Stats from the Longhorns this past season: — Burns averaged 12.9 points, 4.7 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. — Bruhn ave...
Logan sophomore guard Desta Rose earned Class 1A girls basketball first-team all-state honors, in addition to being all-district, after helping lead her team to a runner-up finish in the state tournament. Rose, a varsity starter since she was an eighth-grader, was the Lady Longhorns’ leading scorer on a team that made it all the way to the state championship game. Rose averaged 19.3 points, 3.4 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. Logan senior guard Hailee Robertson also earned honorable mention all-state and also was first-team all-district. S...
Tucumcari MainStreet last week hosted its first hearing on a wayfinding plan to eventually develop better signs for travelers in Tucumcari. About 20 people attended the hearing at City Hall. Representatives from Groundwork Studio in Albuquerque and Leighton Moon of Alamogordo, who are contractors for New Mexico MainStreet, directed the session on March 18. Leighton Moon developed the city's logo several years ago. Amy Bell of Groundworks said they helped develop other way finding plans in Santa...
Classes at Tucumcari Elementary School were canceled at least one day this week because a vandal knocked out natural gas service to the facility. Veronica Hernandez, administrative assistant at the school district, said a motorist rammed an outdoor regulator that serves the building, causing a leak. Gas service was halted to stop the leak, but the building has no heating. School officials decided to cancel school Monday after temperatures were forecast to only be in the 30s. Hernandez said a contractor has been hired to repair the regulator,...
Recent leadership turmoil in the New Mexico Route 66 Association has prompted the removal of a museum from a multimillion-dollar project planned in Tucumcari by the Fast TV Network. Principals from the Fast TV Network announced in October 2022 it would move from Albuquerque into the vacant Kmart building in Tucumcari and convert it into an $8 million television and movie production facility, plus a New Mexico Route 66 Association museum and welcome center. During the news conference to announce the project, Fast TV said it would hold a soft...
The suspect in the killing of a New Mexico State Police officer from Logan was charged with federal crimes today. Jaremy Smith, 33, of South Carolina was federally charged with carjacking resulting in death and discharge of a firearm during an relation to a crime of violence. Smith is accused of fatally shooting NMSP officer Justin Hare, 35, of Logan on March 15 when he stopped behind the vehicle that Smith was driving that had a flat tire west of Tucumcari on Interstate 40. Smith was arrested two days later in Albuquerque after Bernalillo...
A Tucumcari woman remains in the county jail after being accused of fatally shooting a local man in the back of the head at Five Mile Park. Ashley Danielle Hall, 22, is charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. The murder charge is a capital felony that requires a sentence of life in prison if she is convicted. Hall is accused of shooting Ernest Arguello, 32, also of Tucumcari, during an argument on March 11 at the park on the city’s west side. According to the criminal complaint and affidavit filed by New Mexico State P...
Tucumcari’s city manager will resign in late June after less than two years on the job. Near the end of Thursday’s city commission meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Lopez said after a 75-minute closed executive session to discuss personnel and litigation that city manager Paula Chacon had submitted her resignation letter. Chacon was not in the commission chambers when open session resumed. Chacon was hired in August 2022 to replace Mark Martinez, who took a position at Mesalands Community College Lopez said after the closed session that Chacon had...
