In the days immediately before the Sedona Red Rock High School cross country season began, coach Ben Scamihorn knew the boys team had a good chance to be a state qualifier, but the girls were more of a question mark. He wasn’t even entirely sure that he’d have enough girls to field a full lineup in meets. With the season at its halfway point, things have changed.
Three meets into the season, Scamihorn not only has enough girls but has been quite pleased with the results they’ve produced.
At the beginning of the season, Scamihorn expected Skyla Bird to be the top girl on the team. Bird set a personal record at the Chino Valley Multi on Wednesday, Sept. 23, running in 21:26. Despite being a freshman, Bird is the most experienced runner on the girls team, having ran cross country in middle school. The rest of the lineup, starting with the No. 2 and 3 runners on the girls team — Jackie Palmer and Yartiza Landa — has been more of a surprise.
“Jackie and Yaritza have both made big improvements,” Scamihorn said. “They’re my No. 2 and 3 runners and they’re faster than my No. 1 runner was last year. Which is great. I knew they were talented and had some potential, but they’ve really stepped up.”
Palmer and Landa being ahead of last season’s No. 1 is especially significant, considering the Scorpion girls qualified for state in 2019. The 2020 girls team, however, has no returning runners.
As a sign of their improvements, both Palmer and Landa set personal records at the Chino Valley Multi, as well, with Palmer running in 23:31 and Landa finishing just ahead of her in 23:19. Both of those PRs were lowered at the following week’s Desert Twilight XC Festival on Thursday, Oct. 1. Palmer finished that race in 22:40, while Landa came in at 22:49.
Other runners have shown similar growth. Freshmen Soyoka Yabuuchi and Arabella Licher also set PRs at the Chino Valley, running in 30:40 and 30:49, respectively.
Both shattered that at the Desert Twilight XC Festival, with Yabuuchi running in 26:16 and Licher at 27:58.
“Even my No. 4 through No. 7 — Soyo, Arabella, Eva [Witte], Leila [Bradley] — they’ve all shown me they’re willing to put in the work and they’re going to get better,” the coach said.
That opinion was shared by Bird.
“I think everyone’s been working really hard,” she said. “So many people haven’t done cross country before; it’s totally new to them. They’ve been working their butts off for the past month and have gotten great results. Now, they’re shaving off time because they’re working as hard as everyone else.”
Another positive for the girls is the age of the runners. None of the girls in the Scorpions Top 7 are seniors. Landa is the only junior of the group, Palmer is the only sophomore while Bird, Yabuuchi, Licher, Witte and Bradley are all freshmen.
And while that bodes well for the long-term future of the program, Scamihorn believes that the girls are capable of qualifying for state. Seeing the improvements that some of her teammates have made in the short term, Bird agrees.
“I think we need to just focus on passing more people and staying more consistent,” Bird said. “Some people have been focusing a lot on their times and others are focusing on places. We just need to focus on getting places down and getting the lowest possible score as a team.”
“I think we’re standing pretty good,” she added. “In the beginning, we were usually last for team placement, just because we had a lot of new girls. But I feel like we’re definitely shaving off a lot of time and getting lower scores and it’s definitely going to get better for the rest of the season.”
