For the second consecutive year, the Carl Hayden Community High School Falcons won the Phoenix Union District Meet, and for the second straight year, Ben Morfin finished first. This year, the Carl Hayden senior did it with a time of 16:14.00 on Tuesday at Steele Indian School Park. 

Morfin had the confidence that he would win for the whole day. “They aren’t going to be close. I have them. This race is mine,” Morfin told Carl Hayden coach Gabriel Robles earlier Tuesday.  

Morfin got this confidence from his parents. “My parents would always tell me that when you want something to happen, you have to declare it. You have to say ‘I am gonna do this,’ so I had the mindset that I am going to win this meet,” Morfin said.  

Despite winning, Morfin did not spend any time celebrating his victory. Immediately after he finished, he was back on the course cheering on his teammates in the final stretch of the race.

“Yeah, it feels good to be an individual champ, but it feels even better when everyone wins a trophy. I know my boys were working just as hard as I was,” Morfin said. 

Three other Falcon runners placed in the top 10: Jose Diez (eighth), Jeff Sumaili (ninth), and Essaih Diaz (10th). This team effort led the Falcons to a 39-70 win over the second-place team, South Mountain.  

Every runner worked hard considering how fast and intense the race started. “We knew it was going to be fast, and we knew that would be an advantage for us,” coach Robles said.

The opening mile to the race was a five-minute pace, which is extremely fast in comparison to previous races.  

One advantage the Falcons had was that they have been practicing on this course for a couple of weeks now. “When you know the course, then you're not afraid of it, and when you're not afraid, then you can conquer it,” Robles said.  

The familiarity with the course led Robles to expect his team to top the podium. At practice last Thursday he said, “I think we have a really good shot to win it.”  

One aspect of the race he didn’t expect was sophomore Essaih Diaz performing as well as he did. Diaz was expected to be the seventh Falcon runner. Instead, he was the fourth and placed top 10.

“I’m a new guy on varsity, and I’m already making moves, and so is the team,” he said. “My motivation was to just keep moving up spots as much as I could.” 

“Once he realized he could run with them, he started working much harder,” Robles said on Diaz. “You just have to believe in yourself and believe in your training.”   

The Falcons will look on toward the AIA Sectionals on Nov. 7 at Cesar Chavez Park. To prepare, Robles said they need to stay consistent and dedicated to the sport. It's been a long season and they have been running 60 miles a week. “We’ll try to cut it down to 54 miles this week,” he said with a smile, acknowledging the seemingly small difference in mileage.  

The whole season, Robles has feared his team would peak too soon. Tuesday, he said they were peaking at the right time as they now head into sectionals and the regional meet.