Miyamura’s McCray finds redemption with Totah win

FARMINGTON

Ty McCray had redemption on his mind.

After suffering a heartbreaking finish in Shiprock the weekend before, the Miyamura junior showed up to win it all at the Piedra Vista Totah XC Invitational last Friday.

McCray said redeeming himself was the top priority going into the race.

“I was focused this past week,” he said. “ … I thought I was doing bad in practice, but I thought about last week and said, ‘I got to keep going.’”
McCray finished the race in first place in at time of 16:57.86.

He had a strong start that carried him throughout the race. He kept a good couple of feet in front of the three Rio Rancho runners that clustered behind him.

McCray said his preparation paid off.

“I just put in good work,” he said. “It’s just building more confidence, it’s just getting better and better.”

Rio Rancho’s Lucas Ortiz, Daniel Beam, and Chase Hawkins filed in behind McCray, followed by Aztec’s Andrew Day and another Rio Rancho runner, Cody Smith. Navajo Prep’s Cameron Becenti finished in seventh.

Rio Rancho had their first five runners in the top 14 to take first place in team standings with 29 points. Navajo Prep had its first five runners in the top 25 to come in second with 66 points. Aztec took third with 80 points.

Rio Rancho also took over the show in the girls’ race.

Rio Rancho’s Reina Paredes placed first in a time of 20:02.45, teammate Andi Almodovar finished second, Gallup’s Jessica Ramirez in third, Rio Rancho’s Cecilia Quesada finished fourth, and Miyamura freshman Kaleia Vicente finished fifth.

Vicente was the only underclassmen to finish in the top five.

She said she had success in this race thanks to the challenging hills.

“This was definitely more hills,” she said. “I felt like I did really good, I tried sprinting all of them.”

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