BonnerSprings.com

Linwood — Matt Coffman has been a regular face on the awards stand at cross country meets this fall.

Coffman, a Bonner Springs High School senior, medaled in the first four meets of the season — including three top-10 finishes. None of those medals were for first place, but Coffman insists it didn’t bother him much.

“It’s always nice to medal,” he said with a grin.

Of course, that comment came shortly after he secured his first victory of the season Thursday at the Eudora Invitational at Fall Leaf Farm.

Coffman ran a tactically flawless race, sticking with the lead pack for the first mile before surging to the lead with authority and opening up a 50-meter lead that continued to grow for the rest of the race.

Coffman’s winning time of 17 minutes, 48 seconds, in the 5K race gave him a 24-second margin of victory.

BSHS boys coach Bill Downing said he was impressed with Coffman’s approach to the race.

“He ran strong,” Downing said. “He ran the race he should have run.”

It was Coffman’s finest performance of the season, and it’s the type of race he’s been building toward each day in practice.

“I’ve just been working hard and wanting to do good,” Coffman said. “I’ve been working hard and trying to win.”

In addition to trying to improve himself as a runner, Coffman has been setting an example for his teammates and encouraging them to do their best.

“I’ve learned quite a bit from him,” teammate Steven Caswell said. “During the past four years he’s taught me quite a bit about pace. He’s always told me, ‘Run your pace, don’t run someone else’s. No matter if you’re last or you’re first, run how you need to run.’”

Coffman hopes to build upon his championship at Eudora. He has both personal and team goals he’d like to achieve by the end of the season.

Among those goals?

“I want to keep everyone improving, get to state and take the whole team with us,” Coffman said, before adding, “and go get a medal.”

Coffman wasn’t the lone Brave to have a strong race at Eudora as BSHS finished second as a team, just four points behind St. James Academy. T.J. Kimbrough followed Coffman’s lead establishing his position early en route to a second-place finish in 18:12. Austin Schuler made a strong charge during the final mile and placed fifth in 18:50. Also for BSHS, Zack Quigley was 14th in 20:05, Joe Casteel placed 15th in 20:06, Thomas Hook was 17th in 20:16 and Trey Scott was 20th in 21:26.

BALLOU LEADS GIRLS

Meanwhile, the Bonner Springs girls finished third behind meet champion St. James and runner-up Eudora. St. James dominated the meet with seven of the top 13 finishers. The Thunder’s Alexa Van Lerberg won the 4K race in dominating fashion with a time of 16:16.

Bonner Springs was led by Mandy Ballou who started strong and held her ground in the top 10 throughout before finishing eighth in 17:58.

“She didn’t seem intimidated by the competition or the course, more importantly,” BSHS girls coach Rob Marriott said. “Some of the other girls were intimidated by it. I think all of them enjoyed it by the end of the race, but they didn’t start out as confident about it.”

Marriott lauded the performance of Citlally Alvarado who took 15th in 19:13.

“I thought Citlally had a good race, and she needed to have one,” Marriott said. “The last two she hadn’t been happy with.”

Also for BSHS, Cheyenne Hale took 19th in 20:10, Tessa Newberry was 20th in 20:11 and Akiko Capalla placed 22nd in 20:57.

Bonner Springs next competes at 4 p.m. today at the St. James Academy Invitational at Lake Lenexa.

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