BonnerSprings.com

The Bonner Springs High School boys and girls cross country teams cut their teeth on large meets this season, including playing host to their own 26-team meet earlier this fall. According to the Braves’ girls head coach, Rob Marriott, by going from large meets at the beginning to smaller meets at the end, the team is more ready for the postseason.

That strategy appears to be working.

Just one week before the postseason begins, the BSHS boys took first and the girls placed second out of seven teams at the Wyandotte County Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 7, at Wyandotte County Park.

The boys delivered their strongest showing of the season as they swept the top four individual positions and medaled two other runners while cruising to the title. The girls medaled seven of their 12 runners and fell just five points behind meet champion Bishop Ward.

The BSHS boys suffered no ill effects from not having one of their top three runners at the meet (senior Austin Epp also plays on the soccer team), plowing through the 37-runner field with aplomb. Junior Matt Coffman earned his first-ever meet victory with a first-place time of 18 minutes, 4 seconds. Sophomore T.J. Kimbrough earned second with a mark of 18:19, while junior Austin Cobb grabbed third at 19:09. Junior Josh Oden nailed the fourth spot, clocking in at 19:57.

It was Cobb’s effort, though, that particularly impressed his coaches.

“Austin’s was the performance of the day,” Marriott said. “We named him the athlete of the meet. His time was his best of the season and he’s had to overcome injuries pretty much all season. I’ve been doing a lot of pool work with him.”

The Braves’ other two medalists included senior Tyler Johnson in ninth with a time of 20:57 and freshman Thomas Hook in 12th with a mark of 21:23. The Braves’ top three runners and the majority of their 12-man team each finished the meet with personal-best times.

On the girls’ side, junior Scintilla Capalla raced her way to a second-place finish in the field of 44 runners with a time of 17:04. In the process, Capalla set a Bonner Springs record for a girls individual finish. Sophomore Mandy Ballou placed fifth (18:00), sophomore Tessa Newberry was eighth (19:05) and freshman Cheyanne Hale took 10th (19:31).

The Braves garnered three more medals by having freshman Citlally Alvarado, senior Irene Crump, and junior Marissa Peterson take 12th, 13th, and 14th, respectively.

Marriott credited his team’s approach to the meet as a key to its solid performance.

“This was the first meet that we really treated as a meet we wanted to win,” Marriott said. “For most of our other meets — they’re so large — we really focus on them more as practice for getting ready for the championships. They knew they could be successful here because it’s the smallest meet we’ve been to. They were pumped up knowing they could earn medals.”

Asked whether his team was in the right spot both physically and mentally going into the postseason, Marriott was positive.

“I do, but I don’t think they realize it yet,” Marriott stated. “We’re now on a true taper, and today we worked them out on less than half of what we’d do on a regular Monday.

“I like where we’re sitting. A year ago we just had six girls — we were lucky to have a team. Now we have 15 girls out. We have a full junior varsity. As long as we have numbers and attitude, the results will take care of themselves.”

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