Eleven days after breaking a 38-year-old Fox record in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:11.10, Fox senior Amie Martin was even faster at the Northwest Invitational on Saturday, when she crossed the finish line in 11:09.
Martin is one of several talented distance runners who make Jefferson County a true hotbed for cross country and track and field.
Bryant Wright knows a thing or two about training distance runners. Wright has led the Festus boys cross country team to five consecutive Class 3 state titles and seven overall, and the girls team to two.
Wright might be the only person who thinks watching a workout is entertaining.
“I saw (Martin) run at Jefferson and saw her at Northwest and she is just very fit from watching her race,” Wright said. “When I see her race, I see she is extremely focused. She hasn’t had a lot of competition so far. I can only imagine she’s having some quality workouts. Those might be as fun as watching her race.”
Two of the county’s top boys distance runners won the 3,200 races at different meets. Festus senior Max McDaniel finished first at Northwest in 9:44.85, well off of his personal-best time in the event of 9:15. Across the county at the Mineral Area Relays in Herculaneum, Blackcat junior Jonathon Coffman had little trouble capturing the 3,200 in 9:43.62. Again, Coffman was off his pace in the event, which he set at Festus last month in 9:34.
McDaniel won the Class 3 state cross country title last fall and was part of a state championship team all four years he ran for Festus. He pulled away from Coffman by 13 seconds in the Jefferson Country Activities Association cross country championships in 2018 and won his second league title.
So, despite all of Coffman’s accomplishments on the track, the trail, in the classroom and helping to make students’ lives better at Herky, he does pay attention to what McDaniel is doing. Coffman’s got a nice resume of his own with three state medals (third place, 4x800 relay, fifth place 1,600 and fourth place 3,200) at the Class 3 state track and field championships last spring.
“I don’t sit there and go through all of his times,” Coffman said. “I look to see where he’s at. Max and I need races together. We haven’t raced each other this year. I feel like we can run together. The competition really helps. It drives the pace faster.”
After an injury-plagued sophomore year, Coffman said he’s feeling the effects of the nutritional changes he made after cross country season ended. While he’s not a strict vegan, he said he is eating a more plant-based diet.
“My thinking is more clear and I have gained weight,” Coffman said. “I still eat meat, but my protein comes from more plant-based food. The amount of nutrients I can get from dark-plant foods like spinach is energy that’s broken down easier. And it cuts excess fat.”
Wright said the only way distance runners can cut meaningful increments of time is putting in time and miles.
“No. 1, a lot of these young men and women have had good offseason training,” Wright said. “Coffman’s not injured so that’s helped him out. The weather’s been kind of cold this spring and we’ve had some quality workouts. Thirdly, the competition is just fierce. There are a lot of kids who are realizing that they have to work hard to be good.”
Coffman isn’t just running down his times for the two sports he’s so good at. He gets involved in his school and community, too. He’s the student council’s school board representative, a member of the National Honor Society and worked with the Rotary Club last summer.
He recently spoke at a Dunklin R-5 Board of Education meeting and told the board the locker rooms at the high school needed to be improved. He wants to run in college and said he wants to decide where to do it this summer. He wants to go into the medical field.
“I feel like I can get a decent academic and athletic scholarship,” he said. “I haven’t decided about whether I want to go far away.”
Two-milers haven’t been the only distance runners making time. Festus senior Alec Whitener, who was 10th in the state for the Tigers last fall, bettered his personal best in the 1,600 by 12 seconds at the Lindbergh Flyer Classic on April 1, when he finished second in 4:28.
“When he was a freshman, he ran (the 1,600) in 5:21, so it’s been a lot of hard work,” Wright said. “He listens to what he’s told and is a great competitor.”
With two weeks to go before the JCAA meet, the De Soto girls look to be a team that can go the distance. On Friday at the Ste. Genevieve Invitational, the Dragons won 10 of the 19 events and captured the title with 151.5 points.
Trista Grobe broke De Soto’s girls record in the javelin with a distance of 118-8. Erika Mellor finished first in the 800 with a personal-best time of 2:22.1. The Dragons’ 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams both came in first. Emma Portell is having a breakout season in the field events. Portell won the long jump in 15-3.5 and triple jump in 32-11.
That’s just scratching the surface for De Soto, which might be the deepest, most diverse cast of track and field athletes I’ve covered. Gracie Richardson (4x800 relay, 400), Kaitlyn McGinnitey (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, long jump) and Haley Johnson (4x100, high jump) are all interchangeable and capable of winning the events they’re in.
The Dragon girls finished eight points behind Jefferson at last year’s league meet. It’s going to be a race to the finish between De Soto and the two-time Class 2 state runners-up in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait.