Rylee Edaakie wins Class 2A 800m title for NACA

Rylee Edaakie brought home the Girls Class 2A 800-meter state title in 2:28.59, giving Native American Community Academy a rare first-place finish at the New Mexico Activities Association state track and field championships in Albuquerque.

The junior from a Jicarilla and Zuni background won the race May 8 at the University of New Mexico Track-Soccer Complex, a performance that carried weight well beyond the medal stand. For Native families and student-athletes in McKinley County, Edaakie’s victory offered a clear example of what can happen when a local Native runner reaches the state stage and finishes first.

Edaakie’s title did not come out of nowhere. She had already shown range at the Estancia Invitational on April 9, where she won the girls 800 in 2:34.19 and placed fourth in the javelin at 60-4. That combination of middle-distance speed and field-event strength points to an athlete built for more than one lane, and it helped set up the tighter, faster effort she produced at state.

The Class 1A-3A championships were stacked with headline performances, including record-setting runs from Menaul’s J’Quan Samuels and Navajo Prep’s Elijah England. Against that backdrop, Edaakie’s win stood out as both a competitive breakthrough and a representation moment for Native students across northwestern New Mexico.

Native American Community Academy’s finish also fit into a longer program history. The school won its first-ever state track titles in 2016, and Edaakie’s gold continued that arc of success. NACA’s rare first-place result at state underscored how far the program has come and how much visibility a single championship can create for Native athletes who rarely see themselves centered in statewide sports headlines.

The state meet, hosted by the New Mexico Activities Association on May 8 and 9, closed with Edaakie’s victory helping define the Class 2A story. For McKinley County, the result landed as more than a time on the clock. It became a public marker of Native excellence, earned on the track and carried home by a student-athlete whose win now stands as a standard for others coming up behind her.