Whitehorse Track competes in Shiprock, Kayenta

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The Whitehorse High School girls track and field scored 28 points to finish fourth and the boys scored 20 points, taking sixth place at the Rock Nation Relays in Shiprock, NM on Friday, March 28.
Sophomores Rayauna Lee and Shandiin Roberts led the Lady Raiders with individual championships in the long jump and javelin respectively.
Lee’s jump of 12 feet, ten inches beat her nearest competitor by six inches and Roberts’s throw of 78 feet, one inch was nearly six feet farther than the girls runner-up.
Fellow sophomore Lakayra Begay also scored points for the Whitehorse girls when she sailed 11-3.5 in the long jump to earn a fifth-place finish.
Freshman Laylah Benally cleared four feet in the high jump to finish fifth. Junior Hope Palmer finished seventh in the girls discus with a 62-5 throw. She also took eighth in the shot put with a 24-5.25.
And the Lady Raiders’ relay teams were strong in Shiprock. The 4x200 team took third in 2:23.41 and the 4x100 team was fourth in 1:02.5.
Junior Elam Etsitty cleared the high jump bar at exactly five feet to earn a third-place result for the Whitehorse boys. Freshman Hunter Tsinigine came home fifth in the long jump with a 16-1.5.
Three of the boys relay teams scored points for the Raiders. The sprint medley team took second with a time of 1:54.13. The 4x100 squad was third with a 51.4, and the 4x400 team also took third in 4:52.79.
On Friday, April 4 the Whitehorse teams took a short trip south to Kayenta, AZ to compete in the annual Mustang Classic. Though there were no individual titles, there were still some strong performances at the event.
Shandiin Roberts led the girls with a second-place finish in the javelin with her throw of 70 feet, five inches. Sophomore Malia Sam was right behind Roberts in third place in the javelin with a solid throw of 69 feet.
Rayauna Lee also earned a third-place result for the Lady Raiders with a 13-5 effort in the long jump competition.
Freshman Maria Yellowman was fourth in the high jump with a 3-10, and Laylah Benally was right behind in fifth with her 3-8.
The 4x100 relay team of Lakayra Begay, Laylah Benally, Rayauna Lee, and Katie Whitehair crossed the line in 1:01.89 to finish in fifth place.
Sophomore Megan Collins took seventh in the javelin competition with her throw of 53 feet. And Hope Palmer collected the final point for the Whitehorse girls with an eighth-place performance in the shot put.
Top finishes for the Raider boys at the Mustang Classic included Hunter Tsinigine’s fourth-place throw of 91-6 in the javelin and Elam Etsitty’s fourth-place jump in the high jump at five feet.
Etsitty also took fifth in the 200-meter dash with a run of 25.12 seconds, and Tsinigine was sixth in the long jump with a 15-11.
The Whitehorse boys 4x100 relay team of Hunter Tsinigine, Dillion Leo, Asa Hot, and Elam Etsitty crossed the finish line in 52.15 seconds to earn a sixth-place finish in that competition.
The Raiders track and field teams are gearing up for a busy week. On Wednesday, April 16 they’ll compete in the Darrell Gardner Invitational in Castle Dale. Friday, April 18 they’re off to Price for the Eastern Utah Championships at Carbon High School.