Cruising to victory: Zuni boys put five runners in top 11

WINDOW ROCK

The Zuni boys’ cross-country team continued its dominance on Saturday.

At the Gallup Curtis Williams Invitational the Thunderbirds left no doubt on which team is heads and shoulder above the rest.

The T-Birds placed all of its scoring members in the top 11, headed by the second-place finish from senior Kameron Eustace.

The Zuni runner finished behind Ganado’s Micah Slivers in the individual race with Silvers winning the 5K race in 17 minutes, 10.24 seconds.

Eustace finished 11 seconds back with a time of 17:21.36.

“We got challenged individually with the Ganado kid winning it,” Zuni coach Chris Carroll said.

Other than that, the T-Birds ran away with the team title. The T-birds finished with a team score of 36 points, outdistancing second-place finisher Miyamura, who tallied 98 points.

Zuni’s other top finishers were Alec Lastyano in sixth, Andrew Romancito in eighth, Kyle Awelagte in ninth and Derek Zunie in 11th.

“We’re progressing a little bit but we’re in the hardest part of the season training wise,” Carroll said. “I see a lot of tired legs.

“I mean, on paper it looks we’re doing really well but from what I know they’re capable of in the next four weeks we’ll see a big change in them once we start backing off the mileage and pick more speed work.”

Carroll said they’re looking OK now but he would like to get more runners in the 17-minute mark for them to be competitive at state.

On Saturday, the T-Birds will host the Patason Amesoli Invitational. Carroll said the meet will not be as big in past years but he’s anticipating to have 20 teams competing from middle school to the high school varsity level.

“It looks like it’s going to be the same teams from the Gallup Invite except for the Arizona teams,” he said. “We won’t see Window Rock and Ganado there, Kirtland won’t come down.”

Nevertheless, Carroll said Shiprock would make the trip down south.

“They’ve been running really well,” he said of the Chieftains.

The meet will include the likes of Grants and Santa Fe Prep.

“We’ll have schools from 1A to 4A,” Carroll said.

The meet on Saturday will be the last home meet for seniors Eustace and Alexandria Bewanika, who placed third overall in the girls race.

“She’s looking so much better,” Carroll said of Bewanika. “She’s trying to really get her leg under her and she’s being a little more aggressive now. I think it’s right the right time to get that mental toughness going.

“She has goals set for herself, and I think she’s really excited for this weekend to run at home for final time,” he said. “Both her and Kameron are seniors so I’m hoping they can do well in front of a home crowd.”

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