SOLON — With a 2021 State title on one side and a top five finish on the other, Solon’s cross country program should still be making some noise as the 2022 high school seasons open. With practice now underway, Solon aims toward a powerful run through a tough schedule this fall. They take to the trails as defending Class 3A girls’ state champion and Class 3A boys 5th place finisher.
That preparation means a lot of offseason miles already logged by the 57 runners who turned out for the first days of practice. August 27 marks their opening meet and even with that depth, there remain openings to ‘shore up’.
Girls Look Ahead, After 2021 Title:
“We lost three seniors off the girls’ varsity squad last year. It was just a great leadership group,” notes head coach Emy Williams. “Still, we were pretty deep. We had 11 girls on that team who could have run at State. We are going to be pretty strong again this year.”
Returning from that 2021 state championship ‘seven’ this fall are senior Kayla Young (fourth in the 3A team race, fifth overall), junior Anna Quillin, senior Mara Düster and junior Gracie Federspiel, who helped the Lady Spartans to a 29 point (77-106) win over runner-up Ballard of Huxley. Tradition is building. The Lady Spartans were fifth at State in 2020, improving on a seventh place team finish in 2019.
Their roster includes a solid JV team, which last year won nearly all of its meets, too. Among those JV victories was a perfect 1-2-3-4-5 WaMaC conference finish. They did likewise at the big Tipton meet early in the season, crossing 1 through 5…as well as 8, 9, 10, and 11. Several of the girls moved back and forth to varsity through the fall as well.
“A lot of those same girls did really well at the State Track Meet in May, too (Solon won the 3A title there as well.) That depth, that leadership, will help us again this season. We want to keep that going and not just ‘settle’,” emphasizes Williams.
Boys Build on 2021, 2020 success:
“We lost a huge senior class on the boys’ side. We will be younger this fall,” points out Williams. “Still, by season’s end last year, we had some runners starting to come on; to really see themselves as runners and competitors.”
The boys have tasted success. In 2020, that came in the shape of the Class 3A runner-up plaque. Last year Solon charged to fifth place. Three-year state qualifier Gabe Hinman is gone now. However, junior Brick Kabela and senior Michael Yeomans provide varsity leadership this season. Kabela was 14th last year at State. Yeomans logged a top-60 finish there.
With practice underway for a couple weeks now, Williams, and assistant coaches Michelle Lyons, Brian Fitzpatrick, Emily Moser, Chase Moser, and (for middle school) Steph Hoeper and Jessica Brimeyer want their runners to focus on themselves; not to worry about who they will run against in the meets. “It’s ‘what do we need to do?’, Where are we–‘timewise’–compared to last year.” she emphasizes. “A lot of us are just figuring out how to run a five kilometer course. Class 3A is always tough. There are lots of talented runners. We will start the season ‘focused on us’ and see where we are.”
For everybody? Put it together. That’s where each runner can look back at how he or she prepared. “We have seen a lot of kids this summer (at voluntary workouts). I feel as a team coming to our summer runs, they have come back in better shape than in years past,” reviews Williams. “The Solon Beef Days 5K, we also did our own 5K. They were faster than they had been last year.” Williams admits it is exciting to see that the athletes are taking their training seriously, and working hard.
The first meet is still week or so away (Saturday, August 27 at the Anamosa Middle School), but the season has already started.
2022 cross country season preview
August 17, 2022