ALBUQUERQUE — Pojoaque Valley seniors Mikayla Calabaza and Steven Dolcine recently faced a tough choice: walk across the stage Saturday morning with their fellow graduates to collect their high school diplomas or compete in the sport they love in one last attempt to grab state gold.
While many of their teammates opted for the former, Calabaza and Dolcine were at the New Mexico state track and field meet at The University of New Mexico Track and Soccer Complex.
Had it not been for their efforts Pojoaque would have been shut out at the meet.
Instead, Calabaza came away from the track with a gold medal in the discus and a silver in the shot put, the latter outcome leaving her in tears.
And Dolcine visited the medal podium three times.
For Calabaza, her discus heave of 121-feet, 7-inches not only was good enough for first place, it also set a school record. And, for good measure, she became the first in her family to achieve gold over three older siblings.
“I guess that means that I’m better than all of them,” she said with a quick chuckle as a sunny smile briefly broke out amongst her tears after a disappointing shot put performance.
It was a bittersweet moment for Calabaza.
“I’m happy right now, but I’m pretty emotional,” she said. “I didn’t do as good as I wanted to (in the shot). I kept scratching. All my long throws were scratches. And I’m graduating today, too.”
Still, Calabaza said, she has no regrets about her decision, especially after winning the discus.
“I was so excited,” she said. “That was something I’ve been working on a long time. For freshman and sophomore year, I didn’t medal at all in discus and being state champion two years later is crazy.”
In her preliminary three throws, Calabaza’s best was 113-2 so her only goal at that point was to top that distance.
And on her final throw, she got her personal best.
And as disappointing as her finish might have been in the shot put, it was also rather remarkable as she scratched on five of her six throws, but still was runner-up and added another school record.
“It’s sort of amazing, my last year ended on a sort of good note,” she said. “My last meet, it I felt like in shot put I was competing with myself and with my emotions and all that. I just kept scratching. I felt like if I didn’t scratch, I would have won probably, but it’s over. I’m thinking positive now.”
Her brother and Pojoaque coach Terrell Calabaza spoke with her several times during the day to get her to grasp the bright side of it all.
“I know we worked long and hard for a lot of this stuff and being appreciative and grateful for the things that came her way,” he said. “And the people we met along the way. When we came into this, we hardly knew a lot of people and we broadened that perspective along the way, made a lot of friends across the board in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and Taos. Other athletes and coaches. We developed friendships between other school districts all because of how she performed and how well she did. A lot of athletes from other schools looked up to her. Other coaching staffs would ask to videotape tape her throws at some meets.”
As the day wore on and emotions wore off, his sister was able to grasp what she accomplished.
“She was able to see the bigger picture of it all,” Terrell Calabaza said. “As the day went on, she felt better. We did have another talk after that a few hours later and realized the fun she’s had.”
For Dolcine, there was also disappointment, but in the end, satisfaction after he took sixth in the long jump, but was only four inches from second in 21-½ on Friday and followed that up with fourth in the 400-meter dash in 50.06 seconds and fifth in the 200.
“In the 400, I had really, really high expectations of making it to first today,” he said. “I really just wanted to because today was the day I actually graduate from high school and they made me have the decision of either picking going to my state meet or graduation.”
So at first, his finish was not what he was seeking.
“The 400 is a really intense race and I feel like I put a lot into it. First would have been really good,” Dolcine said. “Honestly after the racing with the boys and being on the podium with them, Lovington having that type of support, I realize that fourth isn’t really that bad. We all ran our best so honestly I’m just really happy to be here today. Fourth place is not bad at all. I did really good.”
Everything considered, Terrell Calabaza said Dolcine’s performance was just fine.
“He said he did feel a little different coming into the second day,” he said. “He was just trying to embrace and absorb everything at much as possible. A lot of it for both of them was that it was their last track meet of their high school careers. And that’s hard to understand. It’s hard to appreciate how heavy that weight is, and especially missing graduation.”
New Mexico State Track and Field Championship Medalists
Española Valley
Girls
(one point, tied 21st)
Medley relay, 6th, 4:34.66 (Katie Alire, Averi Schultz, Neveah Cachora, Hailey Renteria)
Pojoaque Valley
Boys
(six points, 14th place)
Long jump, Steven Dolcine, sixth, 21-½
400 dash, Dolcine, 4th, 50.06
200 dash, Dolcine, 5th, 22.78
Girls
(12 points, 10th place)
Discus, Mikayla Calabaza, 1st, 121-7
Shot put, Calabaza, 2nd, 35-3