Kirtland Central High boys’ cross-country team brings home first place trophy

FARMINGTON

The Kirtland Central High School boys’ cross-country team finally got it right.

Since the season began, the team has been looking for the right combination to bring home a first place team trophy and last weekend they did just that.

They placed first with a combined score of 45 points at the 2016 Totah Invitational hosted by Piedra Vista High School.

Kirtland Central head coach Lenny Esson said the key was to finding a compatible top five.

“We’re trying to find a fifth runner right now,” he said. “One through four, we’ve been pretty consistent, but as for the fifth runner—we’ve had a different runner each week.”
This week Hyrum Yazzie helped the team close in on the win as the team’s fifth runner.

The Broncos were led by Kashon Harrison, who finished in first place with a time of 16:03.52. Koby Blackwater finished third overall and Jacob Hawkins came in sixth in a time of 17:34.65. Osean Nez finished 13th in 18:07.11 and Yazzie came in 22nd place with a time of 18:40.09.

Esson said Harrison led the team well but he almost didn’t run in the meet.

He said he and Harrison talked about sitting him out just to make sure that he is racing smart.

Esson said keeping Harrison in mind for each race is also keeping the team in mind.

“We’re trying to be selective in how to race him over the course of eight meets. He put in more miles last week and he was able to work himself a little bit more each day,” said Esson. “But at the same time, we’re trying to focus on the team this year.”

Navajo Preparatory School boys’ team finished in second with 62 points and Aztec in third with 71 points.

On the girls’ end, the Window Rock Lady Scouts won their second-consecutive title with a combined score of 44 points.

Window Rock had their turning point of the season when they picked up their first team win last weekend in Shiprock. They are now running on that momentum.

Window Rock head coach Stephen Fabina said like last week his team had a good week of training and it paid off, and this week was not that much different.

“We pushed them hard again this week in practice and it looks like they are responding well,” he said. “I think it starts with the training and the kids really focused in last week with the training, and I think it really carried over this week and we got another good week of training.”

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