Program looks toward growing team by developing up-and-coming middle schoolers

The Sedona Red Rock High School boys varsity cross-country team’s 2026 season started on Aug. 29, at the Peaks Invitational in Flagstaff’s Buffalo Park. This year’s roster is freshmen Aarav Bhakta, Justin Lopez, Matthew Martinez with senior Sunny Flores.

“For our freshmen it was pretty impressive to watch them compete at the varsity level for the first time,” head coach Cody McKesson said. “Because the step- up from middle school to high school is huge. Middle school there’s like 17 teams competing, and high school competitions there’s like 72 teams.”

“Just finishing the race,” Bhakta cited as what he was most proud of coming out of the opening meet, and added that McKesson’s post-race advice that he is working on is “I just have to keep running, increase my mileage, and don’t overthink it.”

“Aarav I’ve been getting to know the past few years, and one of the hardest workers I know, I teach him violin,” as the orchestra teacher and he “takes his violin home a lot, practices a lot. … it’s the same with sports. He keeps working hard, keeps being better, runs his own race [and] competes against his own times.”

Flores has consistently been earning the team’s annual Most Improved Award and McKesson said he thinks that Flores’ senior year is going to pay dividends for his hard work in the cross-country program as well in the track and field season this spring. Flores cited a personal best of around 5:31 in the mile among his personal accomplishments over his time at Sedona Red Rock High School.

“The best way to describe Sunny is a quiet leader. He’s not going to really talk much, and that’s just his personality, and I respect that because I’m kind of the same way,” head coach Cody McKesson said.

While Flores is recovering from a minor injury and missed the season-opener he anticipates that he will be competing on Tuesday, Sept. 15, in the Chuck Hardt Invitational at the Payson Golf Course.

“My goal for cross-country this year is to definitely make it to state,” Flores said.

Martinez is a newcomer to SRRHS — McKesson said the team could identify from the back of his head

“He just came here, however, he won every single meet in middle school last year, first place,” McKesson said. “On the first day of practice, I said ‘Hey everyone, this is Justin’ and then Matthew said, ‘I don’t know him.’ So I had Justin turn around and looked at the back of his head, and asked, ‘Now do you know?, and Matthew’s like, ‘Oh my God, now I know him!'”

Martinez’s “like the cultural heart of the team, where he just brings the happiness and the joy of running to the team, and it’s contagious,” McKesson said. “We feed off of that energy, and he keeps everyone’s morale up, cracking jokes all the time, talking to everyone, making sure that everyone’s OK, and also a really strong runner on top of that, so he’s a good leader for the team.”

On paper, McKesson concedes it might be a rough season with only four runners.

“However, the way to keep the engagement with a small team is you just got to think personally — how far can you push yourself,” he said. “Once they get that curiosity there, with the culture of love, it’s just — how can you not enjoy what you’re doing if you’re curious about what you can do?”

Unfortunately, McKesson said that not enough girls came out to field a varsity team this year, but that the long-term growth of the program is strong with a large turnout in the middle school program.

There’s about 20 runners in the middle school program according to McKesson, who added. “I just haven’t seen such a hardworking group of middle schoolers either. They just go out and run, and the joy that they’re running with is second to none. … It’s an amazing group. So three years from now, the Sedona Cross-Country team is going to be one of the best in the state.”

Scorpion Times at 5k Peaks Invitational

• Aarav Bhakta: 29:29.4
• Justin Lopez: 27:25.8
• Matthew Martinez: 26:14.9

Scorpion Meet Schedule

• Tuesday, Sept. 15: Chuck Hardt Invitational at the Payson Golf Course
• Saturday, Sept. 19: 4 Corners Invitational at Buffalo Park
• Saturday, Sept. 26: Camp Verde Small Invite at Camp Verde High School