State qualification bids up for grabs at district meets

ALBUQUERQUE

Expect a few surprises.

That’s the consensus among the coaches in District 1-3A as Zuni High School will host Crownpoint, Newcomb, Rehoboth and Tohatchi for the district track meet on Friday starting at 3 p.m.
Ramah, meanwhile, will host the District 1-2A meet with Navajo Pine, Pine Hill, Shiprock Northwest and Tsé Yi Gai participating. That meet will start at 1 p.m.

“I am hoping we are going to be right there,” Crownpoint coach Joshua Kaskinen said. “Right now I think it’s going to be a three-way race with Zuni, Rehoboth and Crownpoint.

“I am not sure how it’s going to stack up but I think it’s going to be a fun district meet,” he said.

With the top two placers at the district meet qualifying for state, Kaskinen agreed with Zuni coach Chris Carroll and Rehoboth coach Elmer Yazzie that the district meet is sure to provide a few surprises.

“You always have to expect surprises in track and field,” Yazzie said. “If somebody ate the wrong food the day before and they get an upset stomach they are not going to perform as well.”

Like his counterpart, Carroll there is always going to be that element and with that “there is always going to be disappointments.”

With a young team, Carroll has a handful of kids that don’t understand the process of getting to state in track.

“In cross-country all you have to do is place first, second or third and you are automatically qualify for state but track does not work that way,” he said.

Carroll said the district race is going to be close but he feels that Tohatchi and Newcomb might play as spoilers in some of the events.

“You can’t count them out,” he said. “Even with a small team I think they are still going to be competitive in some events.”

With a handful of state qualifications up for grabs, Navajo Pine coach Kyleigh Thompson is hoping to sneak in some athletes for the 2A state meet.

“It’s crunch time for us and this will be the last time they get qualified for state,” Thompson said. “They’ll have to shoulder that weight on so we have to be ready for it.”

Thompson would like to get all of her long distance runners qualified at the district meet. So far sophomore Kalika Bryant and freshman Michael Marshall are the only ones qualified as both athletes hit the 3200 qualifying standards in 2A.

In addition she’s looking forward to her boys medley team as they posted a 4:19.36 on Saturday.

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