Cowan and Coleman Storm Regionals, Prepare for State

On Saturday, Oct. 22, the Watonga cross country teams made their way to Waurika to compete at the Regional Cross Country Meet. They have been preparing all season to have a chance to qualify for state, and two underclassmen runners rose to the challenge.

Brayden Cowan is a freshman standout of the boy’s cross-country team, and on Saturday he became Regional Champion in his first ever regional meet. With a time of 17:32.62 in the boy’s Class 2A 5-kilometer run, he took home gold and was the only Watonga boy to qualify for state. He was followed by teammates Boomer Mendenhall, a freshman, who ran 22:11.71 and placed 60th, and Korey Brewer, a junior, who ran 24:32.59 and placed 92nd. Both boys have battled injuries this season and were not able to qualify for state.

Reese Coleman came in a very close 2nd place with a time of 13:07.14 in the 2A girl’s 2-mile run. Reese is a sophomore at Watonga, looking to place once again at the State Cross Country Meet, where last year she came in 5th place as a freshman and was the leader of the Watonga cross country team that placed 3rdat 2021 state. She was the only Watonga girl to qualify for state. Senior Julien Roman Nose placed 41st with a time of 15:28.93 and was unable to qualify, although she had a good season leading up to the meet.

Coach Jim Bob Coleman thinks both Reese and Brayden have an opportunity to do very well at state. “Both of them should be top five runners in our class, and top 15 makes them an allstate runner. Both should represent the school well and come home with medals,” Coleman said. Cowan, as a freshman, has slightly surprised Coleman in how well he has done so far in his season, constantly placing near the top in meets. “Coming into this year, being a freshman, I thought it was going to be a little bit tougher for him than it has been. He’s really ran well… He won the regional meet, ran really smart and well and didn’t have to run very hard, which is the goal.” Reese, Coleman’s own daughter, has kept up the hard work from last year and has continued to do well at meets. “Reese was second in the race and ran well… She was the first individual finisher. She’s starting to work and do her workouts well and right and it’s starting to pay off for her.” Both of them are very young, and Coleman believes that they both have good shots to keep improving and just getting faster and faster as the years go. The state cross country race is always hard, as “it’s a onetime shot and the race usually goes out really fast,” Coleman said, so he’d like them to focus on being comfortable with going with the faster pace and being where they need to be to see success at the end of the race. “It just comes down to heart and guts at the end… It’s the ‘want to’ at the end of the race when everybody’s hurting,” he said. The State Cross Country Meet will be run on Saturday, Oct. 29 at Edmond Santa Fe.