New Mexico Cross Country Countdown Series

The New Mexico Cross Country Countdown breaks down the top 25 New Mexico boys and girls teams returning this fall. These rankings will include projected top runners and weighing how each team may do in their respective districts and state competitions. Changes to class alignments and adaptions to the state championship format have been taken into consideration. These rankings are based on past two seasons of performances and do not include teams that did not compete last year due to a lack of athletes and team information. All top returning runners are only projections and may include athletes no longer on the team due to transfer or out-of-state relocation.

#10 Miyamura Patriots

All indications point to Miyamura being better than their spring 2021. Although a 6th place team finish may not have been what they were expecting the ability to return four seniors including all-state Tayan Benson is an advantage that other 4A schools will not have. Along with Benson will return George Piestewa (34th), Shance Johnson-Hood (46th), and Sergio Chavarria (48th) as the veteran group. Sophomore Joshua Helfenbein returns coming off a 54th place performance and likely fifth man for Miyamura. Although they return everyone from the state meet they still reside in a difficult 4A classification that prior to Hope Christian stunning in early 2021 has only been won by two teams going back to 1998. Experience would favor them being a top-five team but they will need some improvement across the board if they want to land on the podium in November.

4A Boys

2020 State Finish: 6th

State Titles: 0

Individual State Champions: Niles Thomas (2014,2015)

2021 Miyamura Rankings

New Mexico Ranking	10th
4A Ranking	5th
District 1-4A Ranking	2nd

Top Returning Runners

Name	Grade	Personal Best (5K)	Best State Finish
Tayan Benson	Sr	16:15	8th (2019)
George Piestewa	Sr	17:32	29th (2019)
Shance Johnson-Hood	Sr	19:28	46th
Sergio Chavarria	Sr	19:41	48th
Joshua Helfenbein	So	20:06	54th