Tohatchi middle distance runner defends 800 crown
Special to the Times | Lee Begaye
Tohatchi senior Jared Peterson reacts after successfully defending his 800-meter crown at the Class 3A level on Saturday. Peterson clocked in at 1:57.70, which was a new personal record.
ALBUQUERQUE – Running at full tilt, Jared Peterson needed some motivation.
The Tohatchi senior received that from Dion John, his head coach, just as he completed the first lap of the 800-meter run Saturday at the New Mexico Class 3A state meet in Albuquerque.
“All I heard was someone yell ‘go,’ and I knew that was my coach,” Peterson said. “I just pushed it from there and I picked up my speed even more so after each 100 meters.”
The Tohatchi speedster also used some of his peers – Cottonwood Classical junior Shane Yara and Santa Fe Indian’s Kale Loretto – as a way to encourage him to run faster.
“I always let someone run in front of me in that first lap,” Peterson said. “I do that because it motivates me to push myself harder to get up there.”
Those two motivational factors helped him break the sub 2-minute mark for the second time this season as Peterson successfully defended his 800 crown.
Peterson won the two-lap race in 1:57.70. Yara finished a distant second at 1:59.72 while Loretto was timed at 2:00.46.
“It took a lot from me to get up there,” Peterson said. “And to break two minutes again feels really good. I first broke that at Winslow, and I wanted to break it again during the state meet, so I’m really happy that I did that.”
Later that day, Peterson utilized his speed to surpass two runners in the sprint medley relay race as he leaned in at the finish line for third-place.
The Tohatchi sprint medley team, which consists of junior Eliseo Morris, sophomore Cassius Sandoval, senior Briley Dauphinais, and Peterson, clocked in at 3:49.20 ahead of Las Vegas Robertson (3:39.34) and Hot Springs (3:50.15).
Tohatchi also made a podium appearance with its 4×800 relay team as the Cougars finished fourth overall.
Dauphinais added a fifth-place finish in the 1600 (4:45.24) and senior Talon Long placed fourth in the shot put with a throw of 39 feet, 6 inches.
Tohatchi tallied 22 points in the team standings and finished 10th overall. Zuni garnered four points while Thoreau finished with three.
Zuni sophomore Deron Lastyano paced the T-Birds with a fourth-place finish in the 1600 (4:45.03) while the 4×800 relay team took sixth.
For Thoreau, senior Wade Plummer garnered fifth in the shot put event with a throw of 39-02.50 and senior Tony Becenti placed sixth in the 110 hurdles (18.63).
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow