KC runner regaining her form

KIRTLAND

Patellar tendinitis, snow, rain, wind and just about anything else can’t stand in the way of Kirtland Central High School runner Lakyla Yazzie.

The freshman distance runner had to sit out the first few weeks of the track and field season due to her patellar tendinitis. Despite the pain, her injury was not enough to disrupt her competitiveness.

“I don’t want the injury to be an excuse of why I didn’t do good,” she said. “My goals are just to do better than what I did last year, to leave a mark, to know I did try this year.”

During the Bill Slade Invitational held last weekend in Kirtland, Yazzie used her time away from the track as a way to push her to meet the state qualification time in the 1600-meter run. The New Mexico Class 4A state track meet is scheduled for May 13-14 at the University of New Mexico track complex in Albuquerque.

Yazzie placed first in the 1600 with a time of 5:38.62, an event she already qualified for the state meet. In the 3200, she missed the state qualification time by five seconds with a first place finish of 12:45.38.

She was happy with where she finished but what really matters to her is her overall performance.

“I used it as motivation,” she said. “Whatever I saw that I did wrong I would try to help build up on it, if I didn’t take enough strides then I would try to take more strides again and open up everything.”

Yazzie learned of her injury at the beginning of the track season. She finished the cross-country season and she later ran in a national competition as the inflammation in her knee started to build.

She followed her coaches orders and nursed herself back to good health just in time for the March 18 Bobcat Quad meet on March 18. That is where she got a good look at how much work she would have to put in. Admittedly, she said she was slow and out of shape.

“It was the worst feeling,” she said.

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