Despite wrong turn, Leslie wins by 26 seconds

By Michael Peretti 
Special to the Times

RIO RANCHO, N.M. 

Special to the Times | Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi
Wingate’s Jewels Leslie make her way down a hill during the Rio Rancho Jamboree cross-country meet Saturday. Leslie placed first in the small school division in a time of 20:32.20 and helped Wingate to a second-place finish with 90 points, behind Crownpoint, which had 89 points.

Wrong turn or not, the Rio Rancho Jamboree small school girls’ race was Jewels Leslie’s race to win.

Wingate’s Leslie took a wrong turn around the first mile and had to turn around and make up some time. She did more than that, taking the lead and dominating the race, winning by 26 seconds ahead of the next runner.

“I think I did pretty good,” Leslie said, with a winning time of 20:32. “I lost a couple seconds when I made a wrong turn, but in the second mile I tried to push myself.”

Leslie said the third mile was probably the toughest, trying to keep pace after she pulled away.

“The third mile I was by myself,” she said.

Eighth grader Tyra Tsosie from Crownpoint took second place, with a time of 20:58. She was followed by Nizhoni James from Valleyin third (21:05), Sidney Harenberg from Sandia Prep fourth (22:07) and Emily Garcia of Rehoboth in fifth (22:12).

Rounding out the Top 10 were Hannah Lilley (Gateway Christian, 22:20) in sixth, Shanell Edsitty (Thoreau, 22:21) seventh, Octivia Long (Wingate, 22:24) eighth, Janaya Tom (Crownpoint, 22:25) ninth and Carly Gonzales (Penasco, 22:33) 10th.

In the team standings, Wingate and Crownpoint again were the top two teams, but a strong finish by Crownpoint’s No. 5 runner, Della Charley, at 55th was enough to edge out the Lady Bears for the top spot, with Crownpoint winning the team title with 89 points, one point better than Wingate (90) as well as third place Penasco.

Crownpoint placed runners 2, 7, 12 (Kayleigh Shorty, 22:49), 13 (Candace Vandever, 22:53) and 55, while Wingate placed 1, 6, 17 (Farrah Chavez, 23:09), 31 (Roselinda Harvey, 24:07) and 35 (Riley Ahasteen, 24:23), with their sixth runner, Erica Yazzie placing 37th (24:04), seven better than Penasco sixth runner (Jennifer Aguilar, 44, 25:01), to give the Bears the runner-up spot and leave Penasco with third.

“It is a nice course, ” Crownpoint’s Tsosie said of her first experience running on the stare course. “It is sandy, and competitive.”