Navajo Prep’s Elijah England wins back-to-back 3A state crown: SFIS boys unseat ‘Prep for team title

ALBUQUERQUE

For much of the season, Navajo Prep’s Elijah England has run on his own.

The junior has a knack for pulling away from the lead pack at the start of every race. On Saturday, he got out pretty quick as he cruised to another New Mexico 3A boys state crown.

England was never threatened as he completed the 5K state course in blistering fashion, clocking in at 15:34.2. His teammate, Kenai Begay, finished a distant second with a time of 16:38.8.

“I was going for time, and I felt really strong at the start but then I got humbled on the course,” England said. “My preparation should have been better, but I’m happy with my results.”

Afterward, the PA announcer got his last name wrong during the awards ceremony but for the people who follow 3A boys cross country, they know England very well.

Santa Fe Indian School coach Jarvis Morningdove has been following England for the past two seasons and he had to tip his hat to the Navajo Prep harrier.

“Navajo Prep is an amazing team and Elijah blew it out of the water today,” Morningdove said. “The best part of this is we get to go against them again next year and the year after that, so the competition is gonna be awesome.”

Behind an impressive pack time of 29 seconds, Morningdove’s team edged out the defending state champs for the team championship despite the 1-2 finish from England and Begay.

The Braves put three runners in the top 8 headed by the 4-5 finish from junior Kale Loretto (16:57.2) and Antonio Pecos (16:57.4) for a low score of 46 points. Navajo Prep, meanwhile, finished seven points back at 53 while Zuni took home third with 101 points.

Santa Fe Indian also received an eighth-place finish from junior Brayden Magdalena (17:07.9). To complete the team score, the Braves had senior Brian Madalena (17:21.2) in 13th place and junior Evan Romero (17:27.1) at 16th.

“This feels amazing,” Loretto said. “I’d say our motivation was we were tired of getting beat. My freshman year we got second and last year we got third, so that’s been on my mind ever since.”

This was SFIS first state crown since winning it in back-to-back seasons in 2009-10. Morningdove credited the strong bond the team has for staying together.

“This core group has been running together since middle school,” Morningdove said of Loretto, Pecos, Magdalena, and Madalena. “They’ve been with us every single year since seventh, eighth grade running next to each other. During the summer, they run together so it’s been a tight bond between all of them.

“Thankfully, they’ve pulled in other guys like Dontrey Callado and Evan Romero,” he added. “All of them are moving up to where we’re gelling more as a team, to where all of them are coming together.”

For Navajo Prep, the Eagles were looking to build on their recent win during the pre-state meet at the Academy Extravaganza on Oct. 18. But on Saturday, the Eagles could not overcome SFIS’s pack of runners.

“It happens, you know,” England said of coming up short. “To get better, you have to lose sometimes, and that’s what all winning teams go through.

“We have to stay humble, and we have to prepare better,” he added. “I gotta talk to my guys more and be more of a leader. It’s not on them, it’s on me too. It’s the whole team.”

Like his teammate, Begay was also puzzled with the outcome of the race.

“I felt like something was off, and I wish that we could have done better,” Begay said.

The other scoring members for Navajo Prep included sophomore Tyler Begay (11th, 17:15.9), sophomore Darington Ramone (15th, 17:26.7) and Devin Upshaw (24th, 17:53.1).

With the entire team coming back next season, Begay says their second-place finish has lit a fire under them.

“We had a strong season this year, but I think the reality of not winning a state title is setting in,” Begay said. “We know that it’s not going to be given to us; we have to earn it.”

District rival Zuni was paced by junior Allen Dosedo as he placed sixth overall with a time of 16:57.9.

“This is a good way to close out the season,” Dosedo said of his finish. “We ran against some good contenders with Navajo Prep and Santa Fe Indian. They have some tough runners, and so we came in to have fun and see what we can do.”

Tohatchi, which placed eighth with 181 points, was led by freshman Blake Chee (17:35.4) and junior Brant Dauphanias (17:37.7) as the two Cougar runners placed 19th and 20th, respectively.

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