Caley Barnard of Melrose clears the bar on her pole vault attempt during the Wildcat Relays Friday at Clovis High School.

Marivel Garza of Clovis preps for her discus throw during the Wildcat Relays Friday at Clovis High School.

Clovis High’s girls didn’t have enough Friday to make a run at the Wildcat Relays championship, but coach Mike Hankins said the Lady Wildcats competed well.

Riding a solid performance in the relays and from junior thrower Marivel Garza, CHS finished fourth in the 17-team event at Leon Williams Stadium with 44 points, trailing Rio Rancho Cleveland (76), Carlsbad (60) and Hope Christian (51).

“It was a good night,” Hankins said. “The kids ran hard and competed well.

“I ask a lot of Melaya (Flores) and Shatia (Phillips) and Sasha (Smith) in the relays. Marivel had a good day winning shot, and Brooke Williams had a great day in high jump. I’m proud of the effort we had.”

Melrose got 20 of its 22 points from sisters Cara and Caley Barnard and tied for eighth place with Highland while Portales, led by sophomore Jenna Sievers, finished 10th with 14 1/2 points. Fort Sumner tied with Alamogordo for 11th place with 12 points, and Texico finished with two.

With Fort Sumner’s Fox-Vixen Relays on tap today, most of the small schools did not have full squads.

Garza won shot put with a throw of 35-11 and finished second in discus at 107-9 1/4. She was hoping to get qualified for Class 5A state competition in javelin, but fell short at 96-7 1/2, good for ninth place.

“Marivel’s done a great job for us this year,” Hankins said. “She’s one of those we just kind of depend on.”

High jump — Four jumpers tied for first at 5-2, all going out on 5-4, with the order of finish sorted on misses. That left Williams, a transfer this year from Farwell, second and Cara Barnard fourth.

Williams, a junior, said she went 5-2 once last year at Farwell.

“I’ve never even thought about trying 5-4, so it was totally new,” she said. “It’s like (mentally starting) all over again. But I’m happy — it’s only the second time I’ve done (5-2), so it makes it special.”

Cara Barnard, meantime, won long jump at 17-10. The sophomore was also third in the 100 (12.57) and sixth in the 200 (26.98).

“I should’ve gotten 5-4,” she said of high jump. “It’s hard because you always do long jump and triple jump and high jump at about the same time.

“I feel really intense. I have a lot of adrenaline. I wasn’t going to run the 200, but now I’m going to go for it.”

Caley Barnard, an eighth-grader, cleared 11 feet in pole vault but had to settle for second on misses to Highland’s Anicka Newell.

Relays — The Lady Cats ran season-best times of 49.84 and 1:46.07, respectively, in the 400 and 800 relays.

Flores, normally the lead runner on both, was moved to the third leg in the 4 x 100.

“It’s the first time since last year I’ve actually been handed a baton,” she said. “I was kind of sick on Thursday, so I didn’t really get to work on handoffs.”

Smith, the anchor leg, suffered a slight pulled hamstring in the 800 relay. The freshman toughed it out in the 1,600 relay finale, but the Lady Cats finished fourth.

“We ran awesome,” Flores said. “Coming back from dropping the baton twice in the 4 x 2 this year, we really came out hard.”

Fort Sumner accounted for half its points with a third-place finish in the 1,600 medley relay in a time of 4:34.41.

Lady Rams — Portales girls coach Sandie Schillings said her team’s goal was to get some events qualified for state and, in fact, the Lady Rams did that. Junior Christy Beets became PHS’ third triple jump qualifier, while senior Gabby Garcia made it with a third-place finish in the 300 hurdles (48.37).

Sievers accounted for the rest of the Lady Rams’ points, winning the 100 hurdles (16.0), placing fifth in the 300 hurdles (48.94) and tying for sixth in high jump (5-0).

Schillings said it was only the second time Sievers has competed in the 100 hurdles.

“This was just a good track meet for experience for us, with the 5A teams here,” Schillings said.