At the 3A, it was all blue and gold

By Michael Peretti 
Special to the Times

RIO RANCHO, N.M.

In the end, there was no question.

Led by a first-place finish from top runner Deshawn Goodwin, the Zuni Thunderbirds packed in their next five runners in the Top 10 to leave no doubt about who is the top team in state at the 3A boys’ cross-country meet this past weekend at Rio Rancho High School.

Goodwin dominated the race winning with the time of 16:02 and was followed by two non-Zuni runners — Cottonwood Classical Prep’s Justin Howey (16:18) and Santa Fe Indian School’s Chris Humetewa (16:42).

After that it was all blue and gold, as the next four runners hailed from Zuni.

Kameron Eustace was fourth (16:44), followed by Jarek Chimoni-Zunie (16:48), Jacy Edaakie (16:55) and Dominic Yuselew (16:56), with Brayden Othole coming in 10th (17:11) to get the Thunderbirds the easy state title with 23 points.

“As a coach, this is a dream team,” head coach Chris Carroll said. “Never did I think that we could place six in the top 10 at state. They showed up.”

Carroll said that this team, made up mostly of seniors, set the goal early that they wanted to win state, and they delivered.

“To end this way is pretty special,” he said.

Repeating as state champions from last year, this year’s team gave Zuni their 18th state title and Carroll said it all started with lead runner Goodwin.

“We know we run well as a pack, two through seven, and him we just let go. Deshawn’s goal was to win state, and what a great way to do it.”

Zuni was followed by Santa Fe Indian School with 92 points and Laguna-Acoma with 111 to round out the Top 3.

Santa Fe Prep was fourth with 144 followed by Navajo Prep, 150; Cottonwood Classical Prep, 155; NMMI, 172; Tohatchi, 184; Robertson, 189; Cuba, 239; Hot Springs, 331; and Cobre, 360.

“We didn’t have our best race,” SFIS head coach Joe Calabaza said. “Zuni of course can run very well. They are real tough and pretty awesome.”

Calabaza said this is the only time that Santa Fe Indian School met up with Zuni, as it is tough to meet them during the season.

“We try to find places to meet, but we were not able to, so we just have to guess and measure against ourselves,” he said.

On the season, he said Santa Fe Indian had a great year, and most of the runners moved up from JV this year.

“Last year we lost to them by nine points, and with only one senior this year, next year we should be up there again,” he said. “We just have to practice and get ready.”

Laguna-Acoma head coach Daniel Otero agreed Zuni was the dominant team this year.

“They are tough,” he said.

With only three seniors, he said that he was happy with the finish of the season even though they had an up-and-down year with a lot of good competition and a lot of good times.

This was the second time Laguna-Acoma ran against Zuni, competing at the Zuni Invite earlier this year.

He said that in the end, he told his runners not to worry about what Zuni does, or any other team for that matter.

“We don’t worry, we just train,” he said. “We don’t want to worry about other teams.”

Eustace, who finished with the time of 16:44, said he was happy to be state champs.

“We did great,” he said. “Can’t say anything more about how proud I am of the team.”

He said going into state he knew the team could do well, and that it feels nice to win.

“I was confident we could do it,” he said.

As a sophomore Eustace said it is now up to him to take the lead and get the team ready to defend their title next year.

Chimoni-Zunie said that it took hard work all season, but they set their goal early.

“We wanted it,” he said. “The past two months of suffering and sacrifice paid off.”

He said that coach Carroll had a lot of confidence in the team and that they just went out and battled.

“We all did good. It was tough, especially the last mile, but this is amazing,” he said. “I will always look back at this. In a couple of years I will be able to look back and say that this was one of the best teams Zuni has ever had.”

He said that this team has had chemistry and that they have all been running for several years, even before high school.

Chimoni-Zunie was on the state champion team the last two years, taking his sophomore season off to play football after running in 8th and 9th grade.

As for state champion Goodwin, he said that he knew that all of the other teams would be coming after Zuni, but he knew his team would be able to pull it off.

“There was some pretty good competition,” he said. “They were after us, but my team had my back I am proud of my team.”

Carroll said that this team was made up mostly of seniors, but the team is going to start preparing for next year with their younger runners.

“We lose a lot, but we are deep. We have a lot of JV runners that are just waiting their turn,” he said. “We are not going to lay down at the bottom.”

Carroll also noted the size of Zuni’s fan base at the state meet, and said that is one of the reasons the runners love to compete for the team.

“Zuni is the only fans that will be at the state meet,” he said.

Carroll added that overall it was a great day for Zuni High School, with the girls also placing.

“It was a great day for the boys and a great day for the girls,” he said. “Second is nothing to be upset about. Two seconds in a row: the girls are going to start to get hungry.”

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