The Cherokee varsity boys won the team title at the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship meet held at Kituwah on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 15. They are shown, holding the flag of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, left to right, including: back row – CHS Head Cross Country Coach Ahli-sha Stephens, Aizen Bell, Anthony Lossiah, Gideon Freeman; front row – Oztin Swayney, Tanin Esquivel, Tyce Hogner, Jaylan Bark, Ayden Thompson, Tanis Esquivel, Eli Bird, and CHS Cross Country Asst. Coach Ty Andrews. Not pictured: Jim Oocumma, CHS cross country assistant coach. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
KITUWAH – Runners took to the course at Kituwah on the beautiful fall morning of Saturday, Oct. 15 for the Smoky Mountain Conference (SMC) Championship meet, and Cherokee High School (CHS) and Cherokee Middle School (CMS) brought home a lot of hardware. The CHS boys won their second straight team conference championship, and the CMS girls were runner-up in their division.
With fans cheering her on, Cherokee’s Dvdaya Swimmer won the high school girls race with a time of 19:22.2 and was named SMC Runner of the Year.
Cherokee’s Dvdaya Swimmer won the high school girls race with a time of 19:22.2 and was named SMC Runner of the Year. Her brother, Ogana Swimmer, won the middle school boys race with a time of 11:19.8 and was also named SMC Runner of the Year in his division.
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The following CHS and CMS runners were named to the All-Smoky Mountain Conference list:
- High School Girls: Dvdaya Swimmer, Letsi Burgos
- High School Boys: Jaylan Bark, Tyce Hogner, Aizen Bell; Honorable Mention to Tanis Esquivel and Tanin Esquivel
- Middle School Girls: Livia Crowe, Lilly Lossiah, Lolo Bell; Honorable Mention to Jacque Fourkiller-Raby
- Middle School Boys: Ogana Swimmer
Ahli-sha Stephens, Cherokee head cross country coach, was named the SMC Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. “It’s all about these kids and the work they put in. My coaching staff and I are simply a support system.”
Of Saturday’s race, she noted, “Today was a perfect day to race. In preparing for these last couple weeks of racing, we’ve really trained our athletes and really pushed them. We went outside of our limits. You may have seen us running through town. We’ve really hit hospital hill and drama hill. We even hit the Parkway. I believe if you can run mountains and push yourself up these mountains, then on race days hills are nothing. You conquer the hills a lot easier. So, whatever the course looks like, me and the coaches kind of talk about it and we go above and beyond to prepare them so that race day is an easy day. We do a lot of distance run. We’re averaging close to 25-30 miles a week so that when we race on race days, three miles is an easy, short run for us. I’m really proud of them. They’ve really put the work in. They’re really peaking at the right time.”
Dvdaya Swimmer said the training helped her on Saturday. “The coaches prepared us to race by doing a lot of hills and doing all of the training that we do.”
Cherokee’s Ogana Swimmer won the middle school boys race with a time of 11:19.8 and was named SMC Runner of the Year
The 1A West Regional high school meet will be back at Kituwah on Saturday, Oct. 29. Swimmer said of that race, “I hope to win. I’m just taking it all in as the day goes.”
Jaylan Bark commented on his race on Saturday, “Preparation for the whole week was lots of water, stretching, and basically just watching the legs for the race today. My strategy – I was hoping that I could have Swain’s number one runner run with us today. I was sad that he couldn’t. I went into the race knowing that I’d have to lead the race and focus on having a good kick at the end. I think I approached the race kind of nervously about having to lead the race, but other than that it was really fun and it was perfect weather for it.”
On the next race in two weeks, he noted, “Definitely some adjustments for Regionals. I’m just glad that we got through it as a team this year, once again. Hopefully we can get that first place for Regionals again.”
Tyce Hogner praised his teammate for his preparation. “A lot of my preparation involved me trying to do everything that Jaylan did because he helped me a lot on keeping my pace and just being able to stay up where I am. A lot of things that I’m doing now is because of him because he helped me stay up where I needed to be. Just lots of water and healthy food, even though sometimes I slip up.”
On Saturday’s race, Hogner commented, “My main thought was to beat Kane (Jones) because he’s one of the top runners that is running right now and he’s my main focus. So, he helped me get through a lot of this race just being able to stay up with him and trying to stay up with Jaylan.”
Holding the flag of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians along with their SMC runner-up trophy, the CMS Middle School girls team is shown, left to right, including back row – Lilly Lossiah, Livia Crowe, Josclyn Stamper, Taytem Saunooke, CHS Head Cross Country Coach Ahli-sha Stephens; front row – Lolo Bell, Cambry Stamper, Morgan Hernandez, Maya Lossiah, Jacque Fourkiller-Raby, and Kennedy Moore.
On regionals, he said, “I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to be mentally and physically prepared to stay up there. Now that I beat Kane, I know that I have to keep it up and keep trying to stay up there in the top three or top 10.”
Aizen Bell said, “My prep was mainly some hills then we started tapering down to get rested and well which was fairly good. Some of us got off of injuries a little bit, a little wear and tear, but today we did good.”
When asked about his team’s strategy for Saturday, Bell commented, “We talked about picking people off after the second mile and then after that it was just trying to finish.”
The following Cherokee High School runners were named to the All-Smoky Mountain Conference list including, left to right, Tanin Esquivel (Honorable Mention), Tyce Hogner, Jaylan Bark, Aizen Bell, Tanis Esquivel (Honorable Mention), Letsi Burgos, and Dvdaya Swimmer (also named SMC Runner of the Year).
Bell is also looking forward to helping the Braves in a repeat run at the regional title again. “I think it’s going to be a good race. They’re changing up the course. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be hard work…just have to be prepared, but it’s going to be a good race.”
Following are the results, per NC.milesplit.com, for the top seven finishers in each race plus all CHS and CMS runners:
Middle School Girls
1 – Kennedy White, Murphy 13:03.8
2 – Livia Crowe, Cherokee, 13:04.0
3 – Halie Hill, Murphy, 13:19.4
4 – Lilly Lossiah, Cherokee, 13:42.2
5 – Lolo Bell, Cherokee, 13:44.6
6 – Sydney Greenstone, Hayesville, 13:47.7
7 – Marlo Joyce, Hayesville, 13:56.8
8 – Jacque Fourkiller-Raby, Cherokee, 14:06.3
18 – Taytem Saunooke, Cherokee, 15:03.8
23 – Morgan Hernandez, Cherokee, 15:27.3
26 – Cambry Stamper, Cherokee, 16:26.7
Team Scores
1 – Murphy 36
2 – Cherokee 37
3 – Swain 75
4 – Hayesville 96
5 – Robbinsville 132
Middle School Boys
1 – Ogana Swimmer, Cherokee, 11:19.8
2 – Xamuel Wachacha, Robbinsville, 11:24.5
3 – Gabe Clark, Andrews, 11:33.8
4 – Oscar Page, Hiwassee Dam/Ranger, 11:43.8
5 – Ross Clapsaddle, Swain County, 11:49.9
6 – Jackson Dye, Hayesville, 11:53.3
7 – James Loftis, Swain County, 12:04.8
21 – Kaden Stephens, Cherokee, 13:33.0
28 – Utsela Saunooke, Cherokee, 14:07.3
31 – Jeron Martens, Cherokee, 14:31.0
36 – Drake Cruz, Cherokee, 14:43.5
38 – Levi Oocumma, Cherokee, 14:58.5
Team Scores
1 – Andrews 39
2 – Hayesville 58
3 – Swain County 85
4 – Murphy 85
5 – Cherokee 105
6 – Robbinsville 134
High School Girls
1 – Dvdaya Swimmer, Cherokee, 19:22.2
2 – Amaya Hicks, Swain County, 19:30.4
3 – Annie Lewis, Swain County, 19:55.1
4 – Fern Crayton, Tri-County Early College, 19:59.7
5 – Gracie Monteith, Swain County, 21:09.4
6 – Angelina Lomelli, Swain County, 21:28.4
7 – Letsi Burgos, Cherokee, 21:47.7
19 – Adi Cooper, Cherokee, 25:16.6
22 – Jaylynne Esquivel, Cherokee, 26:23.3
26 – Boie Crowe, Cherokee, 27:22.1
Team Scores
1 – Swain County 24
2 – Hayesville 65
3 – Cherokee 67
4 – Tri-County Early College 91
High School Boys
1 – O’Malley Salinas, Andrews, 16:43.3
2 – Jaylan Bark, Cherokee, 16:48.2
3 – Tyce Hogner, Cherokee, 16:58.0
4 – Kane Jones, Swain County, 17:18.1
5 – Aizen Bell, Cherokee, 17:21.5
6 – Ethan Russell, Hiwassee Dam, 17:26.6
7 – Landon Hughes, Hayesville, 17:33.7
9 – Tanis Esquivel, Cherokee, 17:50.3
11 – Tanin Esquivel, Cherokee, 17:56.7
17 – Ayden Thompson, Cherokee, 18:47.1
18 – Oztin Swayney, Cherokee, 18:59.3
Team Scores
1 – Cherokee 25
2 – Swain County 59
3 – Hayesville 69
4 – Hiwassee Dam 95
5 – Robbinsville 122
6 – Tri-County Early College 170
