Alamo Navajo boys get pushed, but wins Tohatchi meet

TOHATCHI, N.M.

The Alamo Navajo boys’ cross-country team lost two runners off last year’s fifth place Class A-2A state team.

But that didn’t stop the Cougars from starting the season with a first place win at last Friday’s Tohatchi Invitational.

Paced by senior Raul Ganadonegro, Alamo Navajo racked up 46 points and finished ahead of Dulce (54) and host Tohatchi (95).

Ganadonegro clocked in at 19 minutes, 10 seconds.

“I want to be on the top so this was a good start,” Ganadonegro said, noting how he had placed ninth at this event last year.

“This is the fastest race I’ve ever ran here,” he said.

In the last mile of the race, Ganadonegro started to pull away from two Rehoboth runners. Lynx junior Devin Toddy placed second with a time of 19:20 while his teammate James Byker (19:35) took up third place honors.

“He’s real determined to be at the top,” Alamo Navajo coach Ira Pino said of Ganadonegro. “He infects the whole group and today the boys took his lead and they finished strong.”

Junior Tyree Monte was Alamo Navajo’s next best runner as he placed sixth overall while teammate Antone Apache made the top ten. The Cougars also had Marcus Pino Jr. (12th) and Shawntel Guerro (17th) complete the team score.

“Watching them today, I have high hopes for the future,” Ira Pino said. “The boys are barely getting started and they look good.”

The Alamo Navajo coach was very impressed with how Monte finished out the race.

“He’s come a long way,” Pino said. “Last year, he was running three miles in 27 minutes.”

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