Shiprock girls, Chinle boys nails down pack time

SHIPROCK

When you see one Shiprock girl’s cross-country runner, four more are likely to follow close behind.

That is the way it’s been for the last two seasons, and if you ask Shiprock pack leader and senior Lacy Howe, it’s not going to change anytime soon.

“Our goal is to stay together and that’s how we plan to keep it that way the rest of the season,” Howe said. “All week we’ve been practicing on the course and what we’ve been doing is trying to stay together as a pack so, our top goal is to get in top 20, or top 10, all of us, that’s what we want.”

At the Shiprock Invite held last Saturday, that’s exactly what they did. Shiprock placed first as a team with 29 points while Window Rock High School followed with 82 points among the 13 teams present.

Howe came in first with a time of 19:56.04 and third individually. Khadija Lapahie followed in second for the team and fifth overall with a time of 20:43.33. She finished ahead of teammate Destiny Rockwell (20:43.60), T’Yana Harry (20:48.15) and Cassandra Peters (20:48.73).

The five Shiprock runners placed in the top 10 and within seconds of each other. Keeping a tight pack is what Shiprock coach Alice Kinlichee prides her team in.

“They just put out a tremendous performance,” she said. “We always want to win our home meet. They run together, they’re experienced with three seniors on the team and I’ve got some young girls that are filling in the spots.”

For the boys, Chinle High School finished in first place with 35 points as their top five runners placed within the top 20 individually. Kirtland Central High School placed second with 124 points among the 17 teams.

Chinle junior Santiago Hardy led the pack in second place overall and with at time of 16:15.14. To complete the team score Chinle also had Josiah Tsosie (16:51.05) place third, Collin Frank (17:00.54) fifth, Darrin Cly (17:07.90) eighth and Miken Draper (18:03.12) placed 20th overall.

Chinle head coach Duane Denetdeel was unable to make the meet, but Chinle head girl’s coach Beatrice Begay said the team put a lot of effort into their pack time.

“With our boys today, they were going out again and working with our fifth man…trying to push them, so our third boy was kind of working with our fifth boy trying to move him up which they did together,” she said.

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