South Delta Sun Devils closed out the cross-country season in style with more exceptional performances at the B.C. Secondary School Championships in Nanaimo on Saturday.
Junior girls standout Madelyn Bonikowsky completed a wonderful three-week stretch by capturing gold by 18 seconds over her nearest rival — Comox’s Iris Tinmouth from Mark R. Isfeld — in winning time of 15:30 on the 4.2 km course. The race featured 238 entires.
A week earlier, Bonikowsky won the B.C. Athletics Championships Midget Girls title over 3 km and started the winning streak by taking first place in the Fraser Valley Championships in Aldergrove.
It was also a hat trick of podium finishes for Jonathan Hofer. He captured silver in Nanaimo after falling just short in a dramatic photo finish to Matti Erickson from LV Rogers in Nelson. Both were clocked at 13:42 over the 4.2 km trek. Hofer had won bronze at the B.C. Athletics Championships in the 5km men’s youth race and gold at the Valleys.
Nearly joining Hofer on the junior boys' podium in Nanaimo was Jacob Bonikowsky. Madelyn’s twin brother was fourth among 277 competitors, just two seconds behind bronze medalist Gage Zanette of John Barsby with a time of 14:09.
The future looks bright for the SDSS program. Madeyln was joined in the junior girls' race by Grade 8 runners Gemma Dumas, Leilani Jones and Laura Lamyin. Dumas finished 69th in a time of 18:14.
The junior boys' race also featured a pair of SDSS Grade 8 runners — Oliver Buchanan and Aidan Turner. Grade 10 Alex Lamyin was 120th with a time of 16:28.
Meanwhile, Ladner’s Josh Woolgar captured the senior boys race — pulling away from Mt. Doug’s Liam Dwyer in the homestretch for a five-second victory among the whopping 262 participants. The Richmond Christian Grade 12 student covered the 6.2 km course in 20:32.
Woolgar becomes the first Richmond student to win at the cross-country provincials in 18 years.
His hard work and dedication to training with the South Surrey-based Coastal Track Club has paid off in a big way after finishing 37th at last year’s event. Woolgar was also victorious at the B.C. Athletics Championships a week earlier in the men’s youth race.
