Nelson has a new running star.
L.V. Rogers athlete Madelyn Bonikowsky finished ahead of over 200 other runners to win the senior girls five-kilometre race at the B.C. High School Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
Bonikowsky’s time of 17 minutes, 39 seconds was 22 seconds ahead of the runner up in Abbotsford.
LVR’s senior boys team also finished second overall out of 31 schools with an average time of 17:16.
That team includes Jacob Bonikowsky (who topped all Nelson runners with a time of 16:46), Matti Erickson, Dylan Gyr, Brody Jensen, Jasper Ander, Locke Finley and Stevie McCulloch.
LVR has a recent history of gold medals at the cross-country provincials. Erickson won his second straight gold last year, and in 2017 was the first Kootenay athlete on the podium since record keeping began in 1970.
Now Bonikowsky can be added to that record book as well.
