Hopi boys, Coconino girls take team titles at Rick Baker Invite

POLACCA, Ariz.

The Arizona Interscholastic Association cross-country season got underway on Wednesday afternoon.

The annual Rick Baker Invite hosted a slew of schools with the Coconino girls and Hopi boys winning the varsity team titles.

Individually, Window Rock’s Bearren Kee and Ganado’s Damira Allen were crowned champions.

Of the two varsity races, Allen had to hold off Alchesay’s Kylie Ovah in the final 50 yards to claim this year’s title in the 5K race.

“She was ready to pass me, but I took off the last 50 yards,” said Allen, who clocked in at 21:29.18 while the Alchesay runner finished three seconds back at 21:33.01.

Despite winning, the Ganado senior struggled to find a comfortable pace to her liking.

“I think I just took off too fast,” said Allen, while noting that she started to slow down in the latter part of the race.

With that, Ovah made her move in the last half-mile and closed in on Allen as the two runners were nearly neck-to-neck heading into the football stadium.

“Honestly, I almost got to the same level as her, but that’s when she started to kick it,” Ovah said. “For a second there, I thought I had it but she outkicked me.”

Admittedly, the Alchesay junior did not know what to make of the 2025 season, but her results at the Hopi meet exceeded her expectations.

“It shocked me, really,” Ovah said of her results. “I’m mostly shocked with myself. I didn’t know that I could do that.”

With a time of 22:03.45, Window Rock freshman Morgan Uphshaw took third as she finished ahead of her teammate Tiana Edison, who clocked in at 22:09.61.

Hopi’s Brook Huma headed the next six runners with a fifth-place finish of 22:11.95 followed by Show Low’s Madeline Malcolm (22:39.90), Piñon’s Nicole Bitsui (23:02.40), Coconino’s Melina Espino (23:31.85), St. Michael Indian School’s Leonna Slim (23:37.71) and Winslow’s Sonway Masayesva (23:40.87).

In the team standings, Coconino won the meet with 61 points while Ganado took second with 78 points. Hopi took third with 86 markers followed by Alchesay (96), Winslow (117), Window Rock (144), Piñon (149), Tuba City (213), Chinle (252), Valley Sanders (293), Dischii Bikoh (296) and Monument Valley (342).

The Lady Panthers were paced by Espino followed by Alexis Ortiz, who completed the race in 23:42.29. Coco also received a 13th place effort from Laney Scott (24:00.10), 18th place finish Chloe Barton (24:43.06) and a 22nd showing from Arena Holgate (25:00.81).

“It was very unexpected,” Coconino coach Shannon Taylor said of her team’s win. “I mean, we have a very young squad. We were without our No. 1 runner today, and we have some of our top runners nursing some injuries, but I’m elated with how our girls performed today.”

Taylor is expecting to have ace Savannah McKerracher available on Saturday for the Peaks Invitational at Buffalo Park in Flagstaff.

Boys

Kee, who led from start to finish, hit a new personal best at the Hopi meet as he toured the course in 16:46.10, which was 22 seconds faster than runner-up Ian Masayesva, who finished in 17:08.14. Hopi freshman Kylen Atone took third at 17:32.82.

“I was treating today’s race as a tempo in preparation for Peaks on Saturday, so I wasn’t going too crazy,” Kee said.

Kee’s triumph on Wednesday was his second overall as he captured last year’s Hopi meet with a time of 17:25.35, improving his time by nearly 40 seconds.

“I just really upped my mileage this summer,” Kee said of his summer preparation. “I put in a lot of tempo runs.”

Masayesva also bettered his personal best as he ran 38 seconds faster from last year’s pace.

“I improved a lot,” the Holbrook senior said. “Honestly, I was shooting to be under 18 minutes and I did that.”

Masayesva started off the race a bit slow, which boded well for the Holbrook harrier as he saved up some energy and finished strong.

“I tried to go out a little bit conservative,” he said. “Once we got on top of the hill, I started to move up.”

Antone, meanwhile, didn’t expect to be in the top 3 as the Hopi harrier eyed Kee at the start of the race.

“I tried to stay with the first runner,” Antone said of the Window Rock runner. “I started slowing down on the second hill. That’s when the runner behind me (Masayesva) passed by me. I tried to keep up with him but he finished ahead of me.”

Led by Antone, Hopi garnered 43 points to win the team championship with Tuba City finishing a distant second with 123 points.

The Bruins had four other runners place in the top 12 with Wayne Poley 18:14.58) take eighth, James Pawisiwma (18:16.27) ninth, Alde Kuwanwytewa (18:27.97) 11th and Hunter Bahnimptewa (18:28.06) 12th.

“We have six guys back from last year, so this is a pretty good showing for our first meet,” longtime Hopi coach Rick Baker said. “We have a good group of kids and we got 37 or some kids. It’s good to have that kind of a pack.

“I’m really optimistic with the amount of boys that we got,” he added. “In the past, we had a small team and when one guy got hurt or whatever, you know, we couldn’t replace him. But now, we can go 12-13 deep, so it’s the next runner up. So I’m excited. We haven’t had a team like this in quite a while.”

The rest of the top 10 finishers include a fourth-place effort from St. Michael Indian School’s Evans Tracy (17:43.61) followed by Alchesay’s Yonah Beatty (17:50.18), Winslow’s Juelz Soke (18:01.94), Coco’s Miles Seumptewa (18:07.90), Hopi’s Poley, Hopi’s Pawisiwma and Coco’s James Broadbent (18:27.35).

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