Belen junior Mikey Pena leads Valencia County javelin hopes at state meet

Javelin is where Valencia County has a real state-meet stake

Javelin rarely gets the attention that sprints and relays do, but it can turn a state meet on one throw. The event is often staged away from the main stadium for safety reasons, which only adds to its mystique, and this year Valencia County has several athletes capable of making noise in Albuquerque.

At the center of that group is Belen junior Mikey Pena, whose rise has made him one of the county’s most compelling state qualifiers. He is not the tall, lanky thrower many people picture when they think of javelin. At 5-foot-4 and 150 pounds, Pena has built his case with technique, strength and timing, and that combination has turned him into a serious podium threat for the 4A State Track and Field Championship.

Pena’s 170 feet changes the conversation

Pena earned his state berth with a 170-foot throw in Las Cruces, a mark that gives him a very real shot at the medals table. Pena himself believes 170 feet could be enough to place, while 180 feet might be the range that puts him in the title hunt. That is the kind of margin javelin demands: not just power, but precision under pressure.

What makes Pena’s breakthrough even more notable is how he says it happened. He points to an adjustment in his approach, especially the penultimate step in his run-up, where he learned to better transfer speed into the throw. In an event where rhythm matters as much as raw strength, that kind of detail can be the difference between a personal best and an early exit.

Pena’s growth also fits a broader athletic profile that makes him easy to root for without turning his story into a simple underdog cliché. He recently finished fifth at the 4A State Powerlifting Championship, which shows the strength behind the throw. In other words, Pena is not just chasing a big number on one day. He is building a profile of competitive power that translates across events.

The local field around him is deeper than it looks

Pena is not the only Valencia County name worth tracking in javelin. Belen cousin Carson Villela has also qualified, giving the Eagles another thrower with a chance to add points when the stakes are highest. Los Lunas’ Malaki Maestas is in the mix as well, and his recent results show why he belongs on the state radar.

Maestas finished sixth in javelin at the Sepulveda meet with a 159.0 throw, a solid mark that underlines the depth coming out of Valencia County. That number is still well short of Pena’s 170-foot qualifier, which is why Pena currently looks like the county’s best shot at a javelin medal. But Maestas’s presence matters too, because it shows that this is not a one-athlete story. Valencia County is sending more than one legitimate thrower into a specialist event that rewards consistency and composure.

The wider picture matters here. Javelin is not a volume event. One clean, well-timed throw can move an athlete from midpack to medal contention. That makes the county’s multiple qualifiers especially valuable, because it gives local fans more than one reason to watch a competition many casual spectators usually miss.

Belen and Los Lunas bring more than one storyline to Albuquerque

Valencia County’s state-meet relevance does not stop with the javelin runway. Belen’s Sophia Cox arrives as one of the meet’s most reliable names, having defended her standing with a strong performance at Sepulveda. She finished third in the 400 meters and fifth in the 100 meters there, a reminder that she remains a threat in both speed events. Cox is also the defending champion in the 400, which makes her one of the county’s most established gold-medal hopes.

Belen’s girls 4x800 relay team and boys 4x100 relay team also give the district multiple chances to score in a meet that often rewards depth as much as star power. On the Los Lunas side, the boys squad looks strong enough to matter across several events, and the Tigers also saw field-event success behind Maestas in javelin and Isaiah Salazar in the pole vault, where he cleared 12-6 at Sepulveda. Teammate Alexjandara Bachicha also finished sixth in the 300 hurdles, adding another point of evidence that Los Lunas is sending a balanced group to state.

For Valencia County, that breadth is the real story. Belen and Los Lunas are not relying on a single breakout performance. They are arriving with multiple athletes who have already shown they can place at meaningful meets and who now have a chance to convert that into state medals.

Why the state-meet setting matters

The 2026 Class 4A-5A state track and field championships are scheduled for May 15-16 at the University of New Mexico Track-Soccer Complex in Albuquerque, just east of University Stadium. The New Mexico Activities Association brands the spring championships as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico state championships, a reminder that this is one of the biggest stages in the state calendar for high school track and field.

That venue setting matters for javelin too. Because the event is usually staged away from the main stadium for safety, it can feel almost separate from the rest of the meet until the numbers start dropping. For athletes like Pena, that isolation puts the focus squarely on the throw itself, with no margin for distraction and no hiding place if the technique breaks down.

There is also a records context worth keeping in mind. The New Mexico Activities Association’s archives show that track and field records are tracked by classification, and all current records were shifted when Class 6A was added in 2015. That means this year’s state-meet marks will be measured inside a classification-specific framework, not against one single statewide standard. For throwers, that makes every foot count even more.

If Pena can turn his qualifying form into one more clean release in Albuquerque, Valencia County could leave the state meet with one of its most technically demanding, and most promising, performances.