New Mexico Leads Way on Wings of America Junior Men's Team

Preston Charlie and Preston Panana are two of five familiar New Mexico names on the Wings of America Junior Men's team headed to St. Louis in February. Photos by Alan Versaw.

Each year, Wings of America selects a team of Native American runners to represent America's native culture as the USATF national junior men's cross country championship. This year, the selection criteria hinged on performances from the various Nike Cross Regionals and Foot Locker Regional events, including the NXR-Southwest race in Mesa, Arizona, on November 17.

This year's seven-person junior men's team includes five representatives from the state of New Mexico. Included are Preston Charlie (Rio Rancho HS, Pueblo of Laguna), Preston Panana (Sue Cleveland HS, Pueblo of Jemez), McKenz Leekya (Zuni HS, Zuni Pueblo), Brandon Levi (Piedra Vista HS, Navajo), and Jacob Riley (Laguna-Acoma HS, Pueblo of Laguna). 

The five will travel with two teammates from Oklahoma in early February to compete and represent Wings of America in the USATF National Cross Country Championships. Contestants must be of ages 14 - 19, not reaching their 20th birthday before December 31, 2013.

Joining the men will be a team of junior women who qualified by the same criteria as the men. Interestingly, the entire Junior Women's team comes from the state of Arizona (after allowing that one team member is currently attending college in Colorado).

Wings of America runners have captured an impressive 23 national junior team titles in this event since 1988.

Members of the 2013 Wings of America National Team were selected based on their performances at premier championship-season cross country meets (either Nike Cross Regional events or Footlocker West). Overall times factoring course difficulty, course conditions and weather were considered by program director Dustin Martin and Wings-affiliated advisors in order to select the top seven individuals for both the men and women’s teams. With a large pool of eligible applicants in comparison to years past, the selection process was the most competitive it has been in over a decade. 52 student-athletes posted qualifying times across four distinct regions. From those 52, the field was narrowed, with great difficulty, to the final 14 selections.