Running right to the top
Gonzales went from disliking the sport to being Class 1A/2A’s top runner
For someone who didn’t like cross-country, Carly Gonzales sure took being second best pretty hard.
The only reason Gonzales even tried out for the sport as an eighth-grader in 2015 was because her sister, then-junior Charlyna Gonzales, encouraged her to try it. And the younger sister always looked up to Charlyna.
However, that doesn’t mean Carly Gonzales didn’t have her own views on long-distance running.
“At first, I was like, ‘No, this shouldn’t even be a sport,’ ” Carly Gonzales said. “I was exhausted, no? Then again, my sister said, ‘No, no, no. Come on. You can do it. Try it. You might like it.’ ”
Especially if you’re good at it. The younger Gonzales consistently was the Lady Panthers’ top runner throughout the season, and ultimately became Class 1A/2A’s top runner at the state crosscountry meet. A year later in 2016, she ended up second best behind Mora’s Natalia Marrujo, and not even a team title could hide the disappointment of not repeating as the individual champion.
“It hurt me really bad because I knew I didn’t give it my all,” Carly Gonzales said. “This year, I’m really determined to do my best.”
Carly definitely has done that this season. She won the Northern New Mexico Challenge on Oct. 7 in a time of 19 minutes, 2 seconds for her third individual first this season. Gonzales was good enough to win the Bosque Invitational in Albuquerque on Sept. 16, with a time of 19:56 while also leading Peñasco to the team title, besting Pojoaque Valley by a 49-66 count.
It gives credence to the popular theory that Peñasco is the team to beat once again in 1A/2A and might be for the next couple of years considering the bulk of its roster comprises underclassmen and eighth-graders.
“One of my eighth-graders is my [No. 2] runner,” Lady Panthers head coach Ben Sanchez said. “Then, the other is running four. We lost only one senior, but those girls have really stepped up and filled in that position. It’s a relatively young team, and I’ve got some sixth- and seventh-graders who run for the middle school that will make some noise.”
They already have a good role model to emulate in Carly Gonzales, notwithstanding the part in which she didn’t like running. And she already has one in her older sister, who overcame a torn ACL to compete her last two years. Charlyna Gonzales’ injury was
the motivation for Carly’s performance in her eighth grade year, as well as the voice in her ear offering her advice and support while the two were teammates in cross country, volleyball, basketball plus track and field.
Those words still resonate with the younger sibling, even as Charlyna attends Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
“She’s always giving me pep talks, text messaging me,” Carly Gonzales said. “Telling me to work hard, don’t give up, just run like you know how to.”
Knowing how to run a race, though, has been a marked improvement for Carly Gonzales. One thing Sanchez noted about his best runner is that she hasn’t quite developed a finishing kick to hold off other runners. In the Northern New Mexico Challenge, Gonzales pulled out to the lead early on and steadily built a 100-meter lead on Taos’ Carly Jones. It was a safe enough distance that Carly Gonzales never felt threatened as she won by 23 seconds.
“She’s got to have distance,” Sanchez said. “So, we work on that so that she has the distance so she doesn’t feel uncomfortable trying to finish.”
Meanwhile, Carly Gonzales has become so in tune with her running that she often zones out on her position in the field, often only looking at her watch to keep mark of her pace. That was a problem over the weekend, though, because she forgot her trusty companion.
“My coaches were telling me the time, and I knew that was what I was racing against,” Carly Gonzales said.
And time has become a trusted companion and competitor because it helps pass the miles that don’t bother her as much as they used to.