Ortega state champion
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- Photos submitted
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Left to right: assistant coach Patrick Flavin, head coach Jeff Martin, state champ Yetzali Ortega, assistant coach Mary Alex Gary and assistant coach Ali Martin. - Photos submitted
Ten-year-old Yetzali Ortega from Farragut won a junior level state cross county championship. She is from a family of runners.
Ortega’s older siblings are also runners. Toniel Ortega runs cross country at Pellissippi Community College, while Marely Ortega was also a state champion in 2019.
Yetzali’s mom, Maria Ortega, discussed her being the latest runner in the family.
“She was already born within the nest of a runner family, so this came very natural to her,” she said. “She is very different from her siblings. Since she was very young, everyone saw her competitive nature. She is always running along and telling her siblings ‘I will be better then you, I can beat you, let’s race.’”
The 10-year-old Ortega also runs with a Bible verse, Psalm 46:5, on the sole of her running spikes. During her championship run, she had the verse written on her leg. Psalm 46:5 reads “God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.”
