PREP NOTES
Eaton Foundation announces scholarship winners
Great SW track and field meet opens Thursday
Published
The Chris Eaton Foundation has chosen four student-athletes from sa国际传媒官网网页入口 to receiving college scholarship help this year.
Sophia Lopez of Rio Grande and Alex Starr of Bosque School both are winners of $10,000 scholarships from the foundation, named for the late Sandia High baseball coach who died at age 35 in 2022.
Chloe Brown of Sandia and Anna Hastings of sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Academy each won $5,000 scholarships.
The foundation said more than 70 graduating student-athletes from sa国际传媒官网网页入口 high schools applied for the scholarships this year. This is the third year they have been awarded. The Eaton Foundation evaluates applicants based on academic and athletic performance, plus teamwork and leadership, plus community service 鈥� all things Chris Eaton emphasized when he was coaching.
Lopez is planning to play college basketball next fall and winter for Ottawa University in Arizona following her career with the Ravens. She was a basketball team captain all four years, a one-time district player of the year, and Rio Grande鈥檚 leading scorer and rebounder. She was all-academic every year. Lopez also played volleyball and tennis for the Ravens.
She earned a 4.0 GPA at Rio Grande, was a member of the school鈥檚 senate, took part in monthly food distributions for the needy, plus toy/clothing/food drives. She also was a helper on a suicide prevention campaign at Rio Grande to help attain resources for suicide awareness. Chris Eaton died by suicide.
Starr was a basketball captain and also a member of Bosque鈥檚 mountain-biking team. He also played volleyball and golf, and maintained a 4.0 GPA while speaking three languages, including Spanish and Polish. He was an all-state academic choice in volleyball.
He is planning to attend Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Brown is a standout basketball player for the Matadors and will attend McPherson College in Kansas, where she鈥檒l continue her playing career. She graduates with a 4.3 GPA, and also played soccer and ran track at Sandia. She is active in her spare time helping her family鈥檚 fund-raising efforts to battle multiple system atrophy, the disease that claimed the life of her grandfather, Hall of Fame coach Mike Brown.
Hastings, one of New Mexico鈥檚 premier distance runners, won three individual titles at the recent Class 4A state meet. She is attending Brown of the Ivy League. She is a director at Effects, a nonprofit group which helps teach science education to underfunded elementary schools in sa国际传媒官网网页入口. She also served as a math tutor, and was a counselor at the Field Institute of Taos.
NMAA: The final New Mexico Activities Association Board of Directors meeting of the 2025-26 school year is scheduled Thursday morning, and it is a full agenda.
The board is expected to vote on the proposed new one free transfer rule, the last item on the agenda. If the board votes in favor, then a referendum will go out to member schools, which will have the final say. If it passes, the NMAA鈥檚 handbook will undergo many changes and revisions as it pertains to athlete eligibility issues.
Other topics include a vote on moving the 4A/5A state track and field meet up nine days in 2027, to the Wednesday and Thursday just prior to the 1A-3A meet. UNM鈥檚 facility is unavailable the following weekend due to the Lobos hosting the Mountain West Championships.
Also up for a vote: increasing the number of state baseball qualifiers in 1A, 2A and 3A, and increasing the number of state soccer qualifiers in 4A and 5A from 12 teams to 16 teams.
GREAT SOUTHWEST: A good number of metro-area athletes are scheduled to compete in the annual Great Southwest Track and Field Classic at UNM.
The event brings together top athletes from across the region. It will begin with the first half of the boys decathlon and the girls heptathlon on Thursday. Both of those events will conclude on Friday afternoon. On Friday night, there are a couple of relays, the 4x200 and 4x800.
Most of the elite running events will be held on Saturday starting at 5 p.m. The field events will be ongoing from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.
BASEBALL HONORS: Dylan Blomker of La Cueva earlier this week was announced as the Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Player of the Year.
The 6-foot-4 senior pitcher/infielder had seven home runs and 49 RBIs, but the right-hander also went 8-1 with a 1.99 ERA with 113 strikeouts in 53.2 innings.
He has signed to play collegiately at LSU.
Meanwhile, the metro鈥檚 other top player, Cleveland shortstop Anthony Del Angel, is the MaxPreps Player of the Year for the state. The University of Oklahoma signee batted .500 for the Storm this year, hitting 13 home runs and driving in 43 while scoring 59 runs.
James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at .
