ANAMOSA — A few new twists and turns added a couple hundred extra yards to the course as Solon’s cross country teams showed up near the top of the pack Saturday, September 24, in Anamosa. It was Solon’s second meet of the season in Anamosa.
Solon’s boys finished fourth and the girls third in this ‘second time around.’ Each finish was down a couple notches from the early season meet. Times, however, dropped for many runners, which is a plus as they work through the last few weeks of the season.
“We did a good job today. We were running without a few people, two key runners out of each (girls’ and boys’) varsity lineup, because of a band competition,” said Coach Emy Williams. “I think everybody stepped up though and filled those places. To get second, behind Monticello? (whose girls were rated first statewide in Class 2A), I’m happy with that. And then our boys ran fourth? They had a great race!” Solon’s boys came through this past week ranked 15th in Class 3A, in voting by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches. The Lady Spartans were third after a few early weeks at the top of the girls’ rankings.
Girls second with three freshmen in varsity mix
With 36 points on the Anamosa course, Monticello won the girls meet. Staying close was Solon at 68 points. From there Tipton (102), South Winneshiek (117), Davenport Assumption (122), Fort Madison (145), North Linn (153), Cascade (160), Anamosa (238), and Cedar Rapids Jefferson (295) came through the finish chute with three other schools fielding partial (fewer than five runners) lineups.
Solon senior Kayla Young again was first overall with her 19:45 leading the 80 girls on the course. Teammate Gracie Federspiel ran 21:21 for 12th place. Freshman Sydney Dee was 13th (also at 21:21). Junior Anna Quillin crossed 15th (21:24), with Sophia Stahle (27th, 22:10), Ella Sheeley (22:37, 34th) and Delaney DeWild (23:55, 43rd) able to help Solon over the top.
“The course was a bit different this second time. I think everyone liked going in the woods a lot better. It made it go by a lot faster,” observed Quillin. “It’s also like our home course with the woods and those blind corners and hills that we work on a lot.” Now, heading through the second half of the season? “We have so much depth, especially to fill the sixth and seventh spots in the lineup,” notes Quillin. “Everyone is ‘dogging out’ for those spots. It could be a different person every week (whoever) is going to have a good race and get up to varsity. You just never know. Everyone goes faster when we all push each other.” That includes a ‘shove’ from the JV team, too, highlighted at Anamosa by a 2-3-4 finish: Ashlyn Williams (22:32), Kerrigan Lyons (22:55) and Mia Duckett (22:59). Kate Richards was 11th (24:53) among the 52 girls on the course from nine schools.
Boys take fourth in crowded 15 school field
With three top 10 finishers, Tipton squeezed past Oelwein this time for the top spot in the boys race at Anamosa. Among those first ten individuals across, Solon junior Brick Kabela nabbed second. His 17:16 five kilometer finish was just 12 seconds behind winner Clay Bohlman of Tipton. Next for the mostly junior Spartan lineup came Mike Yeomans (7th, 17:44), Lawsin Sinwell (23rd, 18:25), Evan Burg (27th, 18:32), Collin Bumsted (52nd, 19:28), Mason Pauley 62nd, 19:51) and freshman Camden Lyons (72nd, 20:35).
“Today, it was pretty good. I started a little slower than normal and then I had to catch people,” Yeomans said. “The first time we ran here, we went around the baseball fields. Today we went straight into the woods, which was a little bit longer. I really like the twists (on the course), you can pick it up on each corner.”
The Spartans finished third in the Anamosa meet earlier this season. Kabela dropped 17 seconds on this second tour of Anamosa’s hills and tight turns. Tipton did not run at that August meet. This month, after Tipton (66) and Oelwein (70), came Monticello (89), Solon (111), Fort Madison (156), North Linn (194), Anamosa (198), Cascade (200), Maquoketa Valley (239), Davenport Assumption (273), Calamus-Wheatland (293), Springville (297), Cedar Rapids Jefferson (306), South Winneshiek (318), and Clinton’s Prince of Peace (347). Also running were two incomplete teams.
So what to do from this mid-point of the season? “We really need to work week to week on our pace, to get (more runners) to keep improving those teams,” prescribes Yeomans.
“We’re hoping to drop times, see where we can get down to, with the weather cooling off,” said Coach Williams. “That’s when everybody gets to set that goal of dropping times. We put in the work. We had a really hard week of practice. We break it down now and start to work on that speed and hopefully drop times, heading into the last month of the season.”
Upcoming meets
The Spartans will run Saturday, October 1 in Wartburg College’s Steve Johnson Invitational and visit North Linn High School (near Troy Mills) Saturday, October 8 for the Lynx’ invitational. The WaMaC Meet is set for Thursday, October 13 at the Mental Health Institute in Independence starting at 4:00 p.m. The 3A State Qualifying Meet is scheduled for Wednesday, October 19 with the State Co-Ed Meet Saturday, October 29 in Fort Dodge at the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.
Kerrigan Lyons makes one of the couple dozen turns on Anamosa’s course in the September 24 junior varsity race. Lyons is among a half dozen girls pushing their teammates for one of the seven varsity spots, from meet to meet.