IOWA CITY — In the middle of acres of soybeans lays a cross-country course that the Lady Spartans would conquer. Specifically, a freshman running one of the first 5k’s of her high school career. Kinley Mai finished third overall with a time of 20:48 and anchored the girls’ cross-country squad to a victory last Thursday in Regina Catholic’s Bob Brown Cross Country Classic at the Kicker’s Soccer Complex.
The girls’ team won handedly with a score of 54. The second-place team, CCA, scored 71. The Lady Spartans had all five of their scoring runners finish in the top 16.
Sydney Dee and Mai were the top two runners for Solon and the only to place in the top ten. The senior and freshman ran together for the majority of the meet, working off each other’s energy. Dee provided the experience to help lead Mai to her top-three finish. Upperclassmen helping talented freshmen will be the story of the season as three of the top five runners for Solon are freshmen.
Solon head coach Emy Williams said, “[The fresh- man] haven’t run 5k’s before so their knowledge and having the seniors run and train with them has really helped those freshmen.”
The three runners to round out that top five-freshman Liv Nelson, sophomore Falyn Svalstad, and freshman Addison Seamans stuck together the entire meet and finished 14th, 15th, and 16th to clinch the first-place finish for the Lady Spartans.
Ava Rowles and Ella Sheeley rounded out the varsity squad for Solon. The sophomore and senior finished 21st and 24th.
The boys’ cross-country team placed fifth scoring 137 and were led by junior Spencer Michels. He placed 18th and ran a time of 18:16. Evan Burg followed right behind Michels as he placed 20th with a time of 18:30.
These two runners are the only returning scorers from the state qualifying squad last year. They stepped up and provided two solid races to anchor the inexperienced varsity squad.
Rene Meza, Camden Lyons, and Preston Raasch rounded out the scoring for the Spartans. Williams said, “Every single one of the boys had someone to compete with and make themselves better. We’ve had some great time drops with a lot of the boys.”
The Iowa City course had its own unique challenges with a tough hill at the beginning of the course. They ran the hill twice during the meet and it was a good learning experience for many of the runners of both teams.
Williams said, “That huge hill is going to take a lot out of you, so you just have to keep your momentum going up the hill, don’t sprint up it, don’t kill yourself going up it. Because as soon as you get up it then you get to come back down the hill and you can let gravity do the work there.”
Despite the different finishes, both teams learned a lot about themselves and what they will need to do in the next few meets to have success in October. Williams said, “Every meet we’re just going to grow and get better.”
Both teams will be travelling to Ames Thursday, September 12 to compete against a loaded field in Gilbert’s meet on the Iowa State University course.