Daxton Coombs, Ashley Galaz earn top-10 finishes at 5A state cross country meet

Organ Mountain once again took center stage in cross country.

Daxton Coombs and Ashley Galaz both earned top 10 finishes for the Knights at the New Mexico 5A cross country meet on Saturday, Nov. 8, in Albuquerque. Galaz, a freshman, finished third in the girls' race at 19:22.2. Coombs, a sophomore, came ninth in the boys' race at 16:21.8.

Both Coombs and Galaz finished higher than any Las Cruces runner in their respective races and helped Organ Mountain finish top 10 as a team in both the boys' and girls' standings. The Knights' girls' team finished seventh with a score of 186, and their boys' team finished ninth with a score of 234 (the lower scores are better in cross country).

Daxton Coombs (second from right) lines up with fellow top-10 finishers at the NMAA boys' 5A state cross country meet in Albuquerque.

Ashley Galaz (third from left) lines up with fellow top-10 finishers at the NMAA girls' 5A state cross country meet in Albuquerque.

While a local rival didn't surpass the Knights' girls' team, Centennial's boys' team achieved the highest finish of the Las Cruces schools in its race. The Hawks finished sixth with a score of 194, with their best finish coming from Ethan Mondragon, who placed 37th at 17:28.2. Centennial's Keller Ford finished a half-second behind him in 38th at 17:28.7.

Here's how other Las Cruces runners fared at the meet and where other schools finished.