The bleached hair must have done something.
In anticipation of the cross country season nearing a state championship close, the Pojoaque Valley High School team opted for a team bonding exercise of hair bleaching.
That made the Elks easy to spot among the crowd of division 4A runners, Nov. 4, at Rio Rancho High School for the State Cross Country Meet.
First, John Hall came streaking across the finish line, the top half of his head brightly contrasting the dark, cloudy sky. He finished the 3.1 miles with a time of 17 minutes, 10 seconds.
Then came Mario Santistevan, 34 seconds later, followed by Donovan Lujan and Jesiah Martinez.
Santiago Romero capped off the Pojoaque placements at the meet, landing in fifth place.
Zechariah Hall and Avery Torrez crossed the finish line after Romero, but their times did not count toward the team score.
With all of the top five runners for Pojoaque finishing in the top 30 places, overall, the Elks scored second place in the state.
Navajo Preparatory School was awarded the state championship trophy, 11 points ahead of Pojoaque.
Hall was the only individual runner from Pojoaque to be given a medal for a top 10 individual finish. He came in fifth in 4A, and he was 24th across all divisions.
Despite the fifth place finish, Hall was not content with the way he ran.
“I didn’t really race the way I thought I would,” he said.
At the Rio Rancho Jamboree, Oct. 14, a meet on the same course as the state championship, Hall posted a slightly better time of 16 minutes, 51 seconds.
He was not sure where he lost the 20 seconds at the state meet.
If Hall had run with that time at the state meet, he still would have been unable to best the top three runners.
The Pojoaque girls cross country team did not have the same level of success as the boys, and none of the Elkettes graced the medal stand.
Amerie Onesalt was 30 seconds away from earning an individual medal. She flew past the finish line with a time of 21 minutes, 35 seconds, the 14th-best time of the 4A girls.
Onesalt usurped Consuelo Quintana, the usual front runner for the Elkettes, who finished 29th, individually.
She was the third-best runner for the Elkettes at the meet, as Michaela Martinez edged her out by four seconds.
Española
For both of the top cross country runners at Española Valley High School, the state championship meet signaled a last run in an Española uniform.
Daylon Garcia, the consistent top finisher for the Sundevils, came in 18th place for division 5A. He had a time of 17 minutes, 36 seconds.
“Throughout the race, I was just talking to myself,” he said. “I was like, ‘Man, I feel good. Keep this pace, keep it up.’”
Garcia’s self-motivation then turned to a district rival, Del Norte High School’s Ronson Begay, who beat Garcia at the district meet.
Knowing he was a strong competitor, Garcia turned to motivating Begay, running alongside him, in an effort to push himself even further.
The strategy worked and he bested Begay by 31 seconds.
“I left him, and I went off, and I just tried to catch people in front of me,” Garcia said.
Faith Trujillo, the top runner for the Lady Sundevils, also found herself running in the midst of blue Del Norte jerseys.
“I tried to stick with two girls from Del Norte that also qualified,” she said.
Like Garcia, Trujillo managed to edge out her two Del Norte competitors, Trinity Yazzie and Ariana Castillo-Munguia, claiming a 40th individual placing.
Her 22-minute, 3-second time was a personal record for the Rio Rancho course.
Trujillo and Garcia are both seniors, and for Trujillo, this was most likely her last competitive race ever, as she does not plan to pursue cross country in college.
She is the youngest child of Española head coach Julio Trujillo, and for him, when she crossed the finish line, that was the last time he would be able to coach one of his children.
“He was a little emotional when we finished,” Faith Trujillo said. “He was like, ‘Dang it, you guys are going to make me cry.’”