Season promising for Laguna-Acoma, Navajo Pine Warriors seeking growth

REHOBOTH, N.M.

The rat race in District 1-A/2A includes nine cross-country teams.

Two of those squads were at Gallup’s scrimmage, which was held at Rehoboth Christian High on Saturday.

“We’re definitely excited about this season, especially our boys,” Laguna-Acoma coach Lacey Natseway said. “We didn’t have any seniors last year, so they’re all returners.”

In addition to those two schools, the district consists of Dulce, Northwest, Pine Hill, Ramah, Rehoboth Christian, To’hajiilee and Tsé Yi’ Gai.

“Our district is pretty big,” Navajo Pine coach Kyleigh Thompson said. “We got some tough teams in there, and I’m hoping to compete with them.”

Thompson was missing a boatload of runners on Saturday as some her athletes participate in dual sports.

The football team played at Menaul the night before and according to Thompson the bus pulled in at 2:30 a.m.

Also on Saturday, the volleyball team hosted a scrimmage in Navajo, so she was limited in numbers.

Nonetheless, she has seven boys and eight girls on the cross-country team headed by Gentry Arthur, Tyler Paul, Kylan Keeto and Kirshuana Plummer.

“I have some brand new runners,” Thompson said. “I’m excited and I’m looking forward to see how they can compete this year.”

Navajo Pine qualified one runner to state from each team last year with Arthur representing the boys and Plummer running for the girls.

“They were young runners last year and they did pretty good,” Thompson said. “They’re more developed this year, so we’re looking forward to see them grow.”

Like her counterpart, Natseway was missing a few runners, but there is a sense of optimism for a team that finished one-point shy of earning a third-place trophy at state last year.

“They kicked themselves about that for a little bit,” the LA coach said. “They really want to redeem themselves for that this year.”

At Saturday’s scrimmage, the Hawks were led by freshman Tagoya Pedro and sophomore Lucas Williams as they finished third and fourth, respectively.

“We’re super excited for them,” the LA coach said. “Every workout, they’re pushing each other.”

The Hawks also return senior Aiden Kazhe-Chino, who was LA’s top finisher at state last year.

“This will be his final year, and he’s putting all his efforts into cross country and focusing on his academics,” Natseway said. “He’s been in contact with some college coaches and he’s really looking forward to that.”

Natseway said she was missing senior Sean-Paul Hotly and sophomore Sheldon Cheromiah Jr. at the scrimmage on Saturday and she feels that they would have helped filled in the gaps.

On the girls team, junior Tayla Vicente and senior Erica Martin finished second and third on Saturday.

Natseway said she was surprised with Vicente’s finish.

“She really came out today,” Natseway said of pupil. “She was neck and neck with Erica before finishing ahead of her, so we’re excited to see what she does with that.”

LA’s other senior is Zaiya Martinez, who helped the girls team to a seventh place finish at state.

“Zaiya came out for summer practice and she’s right up there,” Natseway said, while noting that she’s curious to see where they finish at state this year.

---