Rio Rancho relay team sets state record at track championships

Rio Rancho High School left the 2026 NMAA State Track and Field Championships with more than medals. The school’s girls 3,200-meter relay team ran 9:38.04 at the University of New Mexico Track and Field Complex in Albuquerque, setting a new Class 5A state record and putting Rio Rancho back at the center of New Mexico’s track and field picture.

The record came during the two-day 4A-5A state meet held May 15-16, with the girls 3,200 relay final scheduled Friday, May 15, as one of the opening running events. Because the New Mexico Activities Association keeps official state track and field records and updates them after each season, the time now stands as an official mark in the record book, not just a fast championship race.

Rio Rancho’s strength stretched well beyond the relay. Daimian Zamora won the Class 5A boys discus with a throw of 154 feet, 6 inches, and Sarah Martinez claimed the girls discus title at 114-0. That gave Rio Rancho a decisive presence in the throws and reinforced the depth that has made the program one of the state’s stronger 5A powers in recent seasons.

The distance races also showed Rio Rancho’s range. Mariah Galbraith was in the lead pack in the 5A girls 3,200-meter run, giving the Rams a factor in multiple running events instead of relying on one standout performance. In a championship meet where every point mattered, Rio Rancho kept showing up near the front in the events that tend to decide team standings.

The mark adds another line to a record book that already tracks class-specific and overall state standards across events, including the 5A girls 400-meter relay record of 50.30. For Rio Rancho Public Schools, the meet offered a familiar kind of proof: a local program producing repeat championship results through speed, depth and individual performers who keep turning one strong weekend into a bigger season-long statement.