Santa Fe Indian School seeks another stellar cross country season

“Scattered,” that’s a familiar word for Joe Calabaza.

Ask the Santa Fe Indian School cross country coach if he’s been in touch with his harriers, and you will get the usual answer, especially when school is out.

“It’s difficult to say, because they come from all over the state,” he says, “they are, let’s say, scattered.”

Yes, that’s the difficulty of keeping in touch with his team. But when he does have them together, he usually puts together a challenge for district and state honors. Last year at the state championships run over the course at Rio Rancho High School, he thought his girls would do better, but the young group displayed its inexperience and finished fourth in the team scores behind three usual strong teams in Albuquerque Cottonwood Classical Prep, Zuni and Laguna-Acuma, in that order.  The Braves pieced together 129 points, 40 behind third place Laguna-Acuma, and that’s where Calabaza is looking for better results this time.

An example of the youth of his team. Its top finisher was freshman Kendra Emery, and she ran 10th in 20:40. Another freshman, Destiny Marquez, finished 15th in 21:05.75, and the team’s only two seniors, Iris Emery, Kendra’s older sister, ran her final high school race and took 31st, while Diandra Toya came in 42nd.

“As you can see.” Calabaza says, “even though we had already run the same course earlier at the Rio Rancho Jamboree, I thought we ran better this time, but we’ve got to get even better to stay with those other accomplished schools. We lose only those two seniors, and the girls now have the experience of running at state.”

It’s 3A that’s the goal for the Braves, with Wingate’s Jewels Leslie winning last season in 19:34.75, and in second place was Sidney Cheromiah of Laguna-Acuma in the 19:51.10, as the only runners to finish under 20 minutes. Thus, the task for Indian School is to run more as a group and turn in faster times.

At this time, Calabaza is hopeful that his girls are working out, running and staying in race form, but it’s not easy to find out.

“I make phone calls,” he says, “but not everybody has phones. “So I can only keep in touch the best I can and hope they come prepared for the cross country season that has been running behind because of the virus threat. We are scheduled to have our first practice early October, then we’ll see what we need to do. Along with who we return, we have some more girls coming in.”

Then there’s the boys, second in state last year, and with senior Christopher Humtewa back for his third try at entering the stadium at Rio Rancho and crossing the finish first. He has had to settle for third place both time, almost, in fact, in identical times. Last season, he timed 16:42.20, the previous time he clocked 16:42.45. Even his pace time was the same, 5:23.

But last year, he was stunned by the quick start of victorious Dashaw Goodwin of Zuni and runner-up Justin Howley of Cottonwood. The two burst away, and when Humtewa made his way down the first downward hill, they were, let’s say, out of sight. Goodwin won in 16:02.80, Howley ran 16:18.45. and Humetewa maintained third place throughout the 3.1-mile distance and that early getaway by those two no doubt spoiled his strategy. His father is an assistant coach of the team, so Calabaza can at least check with him to see how Christopher is progressing.”

“I have no doubt that he is eager to win this time, with Howley his main competition,” says Calabaza. “He is determined to do his best in his final race in high school. Right now, he has maybe-5-6 colleges recruiting him, so that’s another reason for him to do real well.”

As is the welcome news with the girls, the boys, too, return with experience. From last year’s team that finished behind a Zuni team that ran off with first, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth, the Braves lose only Ronnie Ortiz to graduation, and he placed sixth. Behind Humtewa is the one usually on his heels in senior Isaiah Velasquez, who came in 10th last time, senior Isaiah Dashano, who finished 17th, senior Debylan Candelario, ran 30th, senior Ehan Vigil, who placed 52nd, and senior Jason Mora, who came in 40th, right behind Coriz.

“We also have more boys coming in,” Calabaza says, “and I also figure I can’t look at what we have until school starts. You just never know who will be back, who will not be back, and who is new.”

But right now, the coach has no body on campus, so it’s difficult to know who is practicing, who’s not, and so he says he checks on Zoom, and as he says they are all scattered around. But he does expect another stellar season, he just needs his harriers to run better, he says.