Nine runners from the Sedona Red Rock High School cross country team made the trip down to Gilbert for the state championship meet on Friday, Nov. 13. When they returned to Sedona later that day, three of them had hardware with them.
Shota Yabuuchi ran his race in 16:44.2. On the girls’ side, Skyla Bird and Jackie Palmer both set personal records, running their races in 21:21.5 and 21:29.7, respectively. All three set personal records. Yabuuchi finished seventh in the boys race while Bird and Palmer were 16th and 19th in the girls race. All three finishes were good enough for All-State placement and medals.
Yabuuchi was caught off guard by his time, as it was a significant drop down from sectionals, which was held at the same place only one week prior.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a big surprise,” he said. “At sectionals I ran 17:48. It was a one minute PR. Overall I felt pretty good with how I was running. The weather had a big role. The state race was like 72 degrees and sectionals was close to 100. I also competed with more higher level athletes and was able to put myself with them more.”
The Scorpion girls sent their entire team to state. They finished eighth out of nine teams. Coach Ben Scamihorn noted that it’s a little better than it sounds. First, while SRRHS was eighth of nine Division 4 teams at state, there were 24 total teams in Division 4. Additionally, the number of teams that qualified for state was limited this year because of COVID-19. In a normal year, Scamihorn estimated that around 15 teams would have qualified.
This marked the second consecutive season for the Scorpion girls qualifying for the state meet. What’s particularly notable is that this year’s girls team had no returners. So, the group that went to state in 2020 was 100% different than the one that qualified in 2019.
“Both years I had runners fairly new to cross country and didn’t know exactly what to expect,” Scamihorn said. “Sending two different teams means that the girls put in the work and it showed that it paid off.”
Rounding out the Scorpion girls performances at state were Yaritza Landa [23:21.6], Soyoka Yabuuchi [25:37.1], Arabella Leicher [26:57.6], Lupita Herrera [27:35.4] and Ava Witte [28:09.8]. Soyoka Yabuuchi, Leicher and Witte all set personal records. While the boys team didn’t qualify, Shota Yabuuchi was joined by a teammate as an individual qualifier. Korbin Burke completed his race in 18:50, which was also a personal record.
Even more encouraging for the Scorpions is how young the team is. All of the girls are set to return next year. Of that group, Landa is the only junior. Palmer and Herrera are both sophomores, while Bird, Soyoka Yabuuchi, Leicher and Witte are all freshmen.
The boys will return most of their lineup, as well. Of the seven runners on the boys team that went to sectionals, Francisco Bekele is the only senior. Shota Yabuuchi and Jack Pierce are juniors, Burke, Carlos Villegas and Kale Emerson are sophomores, and Isaac Montes de Oca Garcia is a freshman.
“On both sides, next year is really exciting,” Scamihorn said. “On the girls side, I’m not looking just to qualify — being one of the Top 5 teams is doable. The boys didn’t qualify. They just missed it. But it’s the same for them. I’m not looking to only qualify, but be Top 5.”
“Most of the kids on both sides didn’t do summer training this year,” the coach added. “With summer training and hopefully some new additions, I think both sides can be very good.”
