Mikayla’s Calabaza’s brother continues to be her coach.
Terrell, her older brother, is in his second year as Pojoaque’s head track and field coach after spending time as the team’s throwing coach.
“I get to have that person that can just tell if something’s wrong,” Mikayla Calabaza said.
With her brother’s guidance, Pojoaque Valley’s Mikayla Calabaza placed second in the discus and fourth in the shot put, earning two medals for Pojoaque at the state track and field championships in Albuquerque on May 17-18. Senior Steven Dolcine won a medal in his first year running track, placing fifth in the 200-meter run.
“I feel great,” Calabaza said. “I made up for last year and the year before that.”
A year ago, Calabaza finished fifth in the shot put, but missed the finals in the discus, unable to reach her best throw.
This year, she was better from the start. Calabaza entered with the second-best discus throw, and performed up to her standards.
Calabaza’s first throw went over 114 feet (which already would have been more than enough for second place in 2023, and first in 2022), and got her into the finals.
“It’s kind of like muscle memory now,” Calabaza said. “I just had to get my attitude right, my head right. And it came out good.”
Calabaza’s fifth throw sailed 124 feet, 2 inches. That put her just three inches behind Silver’s Alexys Salas, a three-time champion in the event. The junior’s final throw went just over 120 feet, not quite enough to take the championship.
“I feel like I could’ve done a lot better,” Calabaza said. “I got tired being in the sun.”
A few weeks earlier, Calabaza set a discus school record at a meet in Los Alamos. She said she had hit similar distances in practice throws, but had never put it all together in a meet, until she learned to relax and take the pressure off.
In the shot put, Calabaza reached a personal best at 36 feet even on her final throw. That was good enough for fourth place in the event.
Lauryn Branch, Calabaza’s throwing partner, qualified for state in the shot put. But she was unable to attend the meet, as she was at cheerleading tryouts for New Mexico State University.
Sprinter
Wins Medal
A new school for senior year meant new experiences for Steven Dolcine.
He transferred from Santa Fe High to Pojoaque, and wanted to try new things. He tried out for basketball, didn’t make the team, but stayed on as a student manager.
“It was a new year for me, I wanted to do a lot of stuff out of my comfort zone,” Dolcine said.
Then he went out for track.
“I’ve always known I was really fast, but I didn’t know it would take me this far,” Dolcine said. “Turns out I was really good at it.”
Dolcine quickly became a team leader and a top competitor. He saw himself start to be part of the top flights at races, and run against the very best. Seeing the top runners at first demotivated him, but he learned to use them as motivation.
Dolcine ran in both the 100 meters and in the 200 meters. In the 100, Dolcine finished 10th with a personal-best time of 11.27, missing out on the finals.
In the 200 meters, he made the Saturday finals. All day before the afternoon race, he said he had butterflies, but it all went away right at the start of the race.
In the finals, he improved on his time with a 22.21, good enough for fifth place and a medal.
“Even if I wasn’t number one, it was still really good to compete against the best,” Dolcine said. “Doesn’t matter what place for me, just I was able to participate at the end of the day.”