J. L. Crowe cross-country runner, Jaxon Kuchar, captured bronze at the 2019 BC High School Cross-Country Championship earlier this month.
The eight kilometre run was held at Clearbrook Park in Abbotsford on Nov. 2, with 281 competitors in the Jr. Men’s field.
“I feel really good about it,” Jaxon said in an interview following the race. “It’s my first year going to High School provincials and coming in I was hoping to get a top-three finish, so to get it, I’m pretty happy with that.”
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The Grade 10 student finished the course in a time of 13:03, just 19 seconds behind gold medalist Tion McLeish from St. Michael’s University School, and six seconds behind Devon Meadows from Centennial Secondary School.
Kuchar trains daily with the Cross-Country Club at Crowe, and found the Abbotsford course fairly forgiving compared to his training regimen in the mountains of the West Kootenay.
“The difference is in the Kootenay courses, it’s all up hill, so coming here it’s really flat and easier to run on then the typical course I run on.”
Kuchar won gold in the steeple at the Royal Canadian Legion National Youth Track and Field Meet in Cape Breton, N.S. in August and has taken the high school running world by storm since taking on the sport just over two years ago. His success has also translated into growth within the Crowe running club as well.
“It’s a good running environment,” said Kuchar. “This year we had like 10 kids, where previous years we only had three. So it’s good to see, our team is growing and more people are interested in running out in the Kootenays, because it’s such a nice place to run.”
The Jr. Men’s team from J. L. Crowe also finished seventh overall out of 33 teams from across B.C. The team includes Kuchar, Diego Palmer, Connor Nagle, Johann Taylor-Greggs, and Radek Krampl.
L.V. Rogers runner Madelyn Bonikowsky from Nelson won gold in the senior girls five-km race, and the L.V. Rogers senior boys team finished second overall out of 31 schools with an average time of 17:16.
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