Chinle girls keep titles where they belong

CHINLE

With no disrespect to the other teams competing, the Chinle Lady Wildcats wanted to keep the individual and team titles where they belonged.

As host of the Canyon de Chelly Invitational, the Chinle girls achieved that feat in the 10-team meet last Saturday.

Paced by the first-place finish from senior Alisia Honyumptewa, the Lady Wildcats had three runners make the podium with its fourth runner missing the top 10 as freshman Nevaeh Scott placed 11th overall.

Chinle finished the team standings with 61 points, which was eight points better than Coconino with Ganado coming in third with 82 points.

“This is a big accomplishment for everybody on the team,” said Chinle girls coach Beatrice Begay. “It’s a good feeling to keep the title here at home.”

Honyumptewa agreed and said the fan base they had made a difference.

“It feels great, especially the support we got from the community,” she said. “I know it’s the Window Rock Navajo Nation Fair but I’m glad that the community came out and watched us race.

Knowing that they came out here to support us gave us that extra boost to perform.”

With a comfortable pace, Honyumptewa raced against herself as she turned in the meet’s only sub-20 mark in the girls’ race. She finished the multi-loop course, which featured a water pit, in 19 minutes, 21.96 seconds.

With some runners bypassing the pit, Honyumptewa laughed about the adventure she endured the three times she passed through the pit.

“I got stuck in the same spot,” she quipped.

Pinon junior Precious Robinson said she entered the pit only once as she finished behind Honyumptewa with a time of 20:07.56.

“This was my first time running this course,” Robinson said. “The hill was a lot of work so that really killed me. But it was a fun challenge, and the water pit made the race more exciting.”

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