Zuni, Laguna-Acoma boys have the personnel to repeat Miyamura’s Thomas looking to extend win streak
Niles Thomas of Miyamura sprints toward the finish line at a scrimmage on Saturday morning in McGaffey, N.M. Thomas is the defending New Mexico Class 5A champ. (Special to the Times – Ravonelle Yazzie)
MCGAFFEY, N.M.
Last year the Zuni and Laguna-Acoma boys swept the team titles at the New Mexico state cross-country meet.
Individually, Miyamura standout Niles Thomas capped an undefeated season by winning the Class 4A crown.
As you would expect they would like a repeat performance.
“We’re trying to win another district and state championship,” Laguna-Acoma coach Daniel Otero said.
For the Hawks, there is a lot of enthusiasm going around as they return five runners off that Class 3A state championship team that finished with a team score of 29 points.
The Hawks have three returners that placed in the top 10 individually at state with senior Jacob Sanchez placing third while sophomore Deion-Luke-Valdo nabbed eighth place honors, which was two spots ahead of junior Clement Ortiz.
Juniors Austin Sanchez and Cameron Sanchez, meanwhile, placed 14th and 15the overall as nonscoring members.
Zuni, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back state titles and although there is some pressure to three-peat, longtime T-Bird coach Chris Carroll said they are not thinking about that just yet.
“Honestly we haven’t set any goals right now,” Carroll said. “Three-peating is something we’re not talking about right now. We’re just going to get the mileage in and take it one meet at a time.”
Junior Terrell Eustace and seniors Cody Latone and Jaylen Bobelu are the only T-Birds that have state experience but Carroll is expecting the other members of the team to step up.
The Patriots may have the top two runners in the area with junior Nicholas Jameson chasing Thomas. But in last Saturday’s scrimmage it was Jameson who crossed the finish line in first place.
“They work really well together and they’re good friends,” Miyamura coach Robert Torres said. “I think they’ll work well with the rest of the guys and with their leadership we should do really well this year.”
As for Saturday’s scrimmage, Torres said Thomas ran an off race and not to count him out.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow