Ganado racks up medals at early meet
HEBER, Ariz.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie
Ganado’s Deana Curley jumps over the last hurdle of the 300-meter hurdles on Saturday at Mogollon High School.in Heber, Arizona.
The medal count totaled 10 for the Ganado girls’ track team on Friday at the Mogollon Early Meet.
Of the 10, the Lady Hornets captured three first-place medals with junior Michelene Coleman winning a pair in the throwing events while the 4×800 relay team captured gold during the 13-team invite.
“I’m really proud of them,” Ganado coach Julian Chee said. “One of things that really stands out for me is we started the season out three weeks late due to the weather and spring break. We had some things to overcome but the kids took it upon themselves to work hard and they are seeing the fruits of their hard work.”
The Hornets finished in a two-way tie for second place with Show Low in the team standings with 96 points. Snowflake won the meet with a whopping 228 points.
The Ganado 4×800 team turned in a time of 11 minutes, 18.68 seconds, edging Alchesay (11:19.99) for the title. The two teams beat the Arizona Interscholastic Association provisional qualification with Ganado competing in Division III and Alchesay being a Division IV member.
The Hornets took silver at last year’s state meet and despite graduating two runners off that 4×800 team, Chee is expecting his team to be up there this season.
“We’re working on consistency, we’re working on pacing and we’re making sure they understand that we’re just not racing against other teams but we want them to improve on their times,” he said. “It’s a different concept but, you know, we’re still aiming for the same outcome of trying to go after one of the top seeds. We want to try and be one of the top 4×800 teams.”
Coleman is also seeking to be one of the top throwers in the state. At the Mogollon meet, she heaved the shot put 33-feet, 3-inches and she threw the discus 100-feet, 7-inches.
The Ganado junior said her best throw in the shot put came on her third attempt with her first two throws hitting the chalk around the 30-foot mark.
“I used more speed,” she said. “I really didn’t like my first two throws because I knew I could do better. I’m just proud of myself that I reached over 33-feet.”
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow