Whitehorse snags fifth at San Juan County Invite

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The Whitehorse High School track and field team hit the road for a short 38-mile trip to Blanding to compete in the San Juan County Invitational hosted by San Juan High School.
The Raiders got several strong performances, scoring 37 total points to finish fifth as a team at the event. The girls team scored 21 of those points with the boys adding 16.
Senior Shania Mitchell scored an impressive 18 points of her team’s 37. She won the girls shot put to score ten with a put of 30 feet, five inches, a full foot longer than her closest competitor. Mitchell also got second in the discus with a throw of 82-01, scoring eight points.
Senior Lewneil Hascon did well in those events as well, scoring two points with a seventh-place performance in the shot put with her put of 24 feet even. She finished 13th in the discus with a throw of 52-02.
Junior Tyrone Farley contributed seven points to the Raiders’ effort with strong races in the distance events. He finished fourth in the 3200 meter with a time of 15:11 and seventh in the 1600 in 7:21. He also came home tenth in the 800-meter race, just outside the points.
Junior Lyrell Primeaux scored four points for the Raiders with a fifth-place finish in the 3200. Freshman Ethan Begay collected three points with a nice sixth-place finish in the 1600. He also grabbed ninth in the 800, narrowly missing scoring in that event.
Three Whitehorse athletes scored one point on the day. Junior RueShandin Jim jumped nine feet, 11 and a quarter inches to finish eighth in the long jump.
Junior Robryan Tapaha finished eighth in the boys 1600 meter in 7:28. And Kaelin Kee got a nice 32 foot, ten inch result in the shot put to finish eighth.
Other top-15 performances for the Raiders include tenth-place showings for junior Izaya Bob in the boys shot put and discus. He also got 12th in the javelin competition.
Robryan Tapaha ran a 2:53 in the 800-meter race to finish 11th and also finished 15th in the 400. Junior Kyler Little got 11th in the boys long jump with a 12-01.25. RueShandin Jim threw the javelin 57-07 to grab 11th place for the girls.
Preston Hathale was 13th in the boys discus, Ethan Begay was 14th in the boys 400, Sebastian White was 15th in the boys javelin, and Lewneil Hascon was 15th in the girls 100-meter dash.
This week the Whitehorse track and field teams are heading to Kayenta, AZ to compete in the annual Mustang Classic. It’s set for Friday, April 7.