XC champs repeat on tough Aztec course

AZTEC, N.M.

With a host of repeat champions, the District 1-4A cross country meet saw some familiar faces run away with their respective titles on Saturday.

But it wasn’t easy.

The sandy and hilly Aztec course made things difficult for Kirtland Central’s Aisha Ramone and Miyamura’s Tayan Benson to win back-to-back district titles.

In the team competition, the Shiprock boys and girls repeated as champions while the Miyamura boys and Aztec girls took second, earning state qualifications.

Ramone claimed her third straight by touring the 5K course in 22 minutes, 58.08 seconds. Unlike last year’s race when she won in a photo finish, the KC junior captured this year’s title by over 34 seconds.

“To be honest, I hadn’t trained a lot for this,” Ramone said. “I was only training like two or three times a week until we started practice.”

That was late last month and when she found out that there was going to be a district meet, Ramone said she increased her training regimen in hopes of another title.

“My goal was to be the district champion again,” she said. “Now, I’m going to try and go for a state title.”

Benson also has some high aspirations at this week’s upcoming state meet, which starts on Friday at Albuquerque Academy.

“This is just another piece of the puzzle to win state,” the Miyamura junior said. “That’s my ultimate goal. I’m blessed and I’m just going to keep working towards that.”

At the district meet, Benson won his race in 18:51.31 with runner-up Demitrrius Young of Shiprock coming in 58 seconds back.

“It wasn’t easy by any means, no matter how it really looked,” he said. “It wasn’t that bad until the hills. The hills is what killed me.”

In addition to Young, the Chieftains also got a fourth- and fifth-place finish from O’Rye Franklin and Logan Pioche to help pace the team.

To complete the team score, the defending district champs had senior Justin Bitsilly place 11th for a team score of 22 points. Shiprock’s fifth runner, Adam Phillips garnered 13th place.

“This is the first 5K race we’ve ran,” Shiprock coach Brian Paniagua said. “We have a tough group of guys and they were mentally prepared.”

Despite having the fall season shorten and delayed, the longtime Chieftain coach said his runners stayed motivated even though he didn’t give them a scheduled workout.

“When the season actually started, they came in in pretty decent shape,” he said. “We’re still not in the best shape we would normally be in for cross country at the championship point but they came in with good attitudes and an open mind.”

With 40 points, Miyamura beat out city rival Gallup by two points for that second-place finish in the team standings.

In addition to Benson, the Patriots also had George Piestewa place third, Sergio Chavveria 17th and Shance Johnson-Hood 19th place.

“These guys had to come back strong with the short season we had due to COVID,” Miyamura coach Henry Smith said. “And with the mask, it was kind of hard for them to breathe but I’m pretty sure the other teams were feeling like that too.”

Smith said having Benson on the squad is a huge plus.

“He’s one of the hardest workers we have and everybody is feeding off of him,” Smith said of his district champion.

Individually, Bloomfield’s Mauricio Toledo (sixth) and Matthias Herrera (eighth) punched their ticket to state along with Gallup’s Kendon Augare-Deal (seventh) as those three runners finished among the top runners from non-qualifying teams.

“Unfortunately, we lost by two points as a team,” Gallup coach Kyle Benally said. “We came in third but I think we shocked everybody. This was our first meet as a full varsity team. We definitely put in the effort and work.”

In the girls’ race, the Lady Chieftains were paced by the second-place finish from Kaydence Platero as she crossed the finish line in 19:49.12.

To complete the team score, Jasmine Rockwell took seventh, Brianna Whitehorse placed ninth and Elena Hardy garnered 13th. The Chieftains’ fifth runner, Avery Lander took 27th.

“In all my years this is the lowest number of girls that I’ve ever had,” Shiprock coach Alice Kinlichee said. “But I knew from the beginning that these girls were going to do it.

“This was their first three-mile race this year, but boy did they earn it,” she added. “They persevered so I’m very proud of them.”

In a tight finish for second place, Aztec edged Miyamura and Kirtland for that important second-place finish. The Tigers finished with 39 points while Miyamura scored 40 and Kirtland Central had 41.

“This was a surprise because we’re missing one of our girls,” Aztec coach Bill Sexton said. “One of our runners got hurt last week so we were short one runner.”

Sexton said it was hard to determine what team other than Shiprock would represent the district at state.

“It was hard to figure that out but I kind of knew we were going to be in a close race,” he said. “Just like the score said I expected it to be close but I didn’t know if we were gonna be second.”

Senior Sierra Villanueva was Aztec’s first runner as she took fourth followed by Ashley Sexton (eighth), Ella Higgins (12th) and Brooke Willcox (17th).

“I’ve qualified for state every year individually and this is my first year I’m going with the team,” Villanueva said. “Oh my gosh, I just love my team. They’re so awesome and I thought that if we worked hard enough we would all go but I’m surprised with how we did it because our district is super hard.”

Besides Ramone, the district champion, Miyamura’s Lorianna Piestewa and Kaleia Vicenti also earned state bids as they place fifth and sixth overall.

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