SOLON — At the beginning of the season, Solon cross country coach Emy Williams’ key to a great season was strong leadership for the talented underclassmen. Senior runner Sydney Dee has done just that to help power the Lady Spartans to their fourth team win this season at the Solon Invitational Monday evening at the SRNA.
The cool weather and mostly flat course gave the runners prime conditions to run fast times and compete against the second-ranked team in the state, Mount Vernon-Lisbon. It was a perfect opportunity to show that the Lady Spartans may be a young team, but they are talented and are anchored by great leadership.
“Those freshmen are just listening to what the leaders are telling them to do, and they just come up and are not afraid,” said Williams.
The girls are yet to back down to any challenge, with MV-L being the latest casualty. The Lady Spartans won the meet by nine points with a score of 49. The meet featured seven teams, but Solon and MV-L broke away from the rest of the crowd to have a tightly contested battle.
Dee led the Lady Spartans running 19:34 en route to a fourth-place finish. Dee dropped nearly a minute from her time the last time out as she took advantage of the opportunity to run on the quick, home course. It was Dee’s second consecutive time placing in the top five as she continues to improve while playing the role as the leader and hammer for the young team.
“She has some really big goals this season, so as a senior, she is just going to get after them,” said Williams.
For Dee to lead this team to a podium-finish at the state meet in October, she will need the underclassmen to continue to live up to the hype. Three of the other four scorers for Solon were freshmen, mixing in a sophomore to round out the winning squad.
Livya Nelson and Kinley Mai ran together for the entirety of the meet. They were never more than ten yards apart, basically attached to the hip for the majority of the race. The two freshmen were able to use each other to stride into top ten finishes. Nelson placed eighth running 20:15 and Mai placed ninth running 20:18.
“We talk about running right by our teammate so we can help each other,” said Williams, “I think [Mai] has taken that to heart.”
Mai and Nelson gave Solon a chance to win, but it was Falyn Svalstad and Addison Seamans who hammered the Lady Spartans home. The two runners put distance between MV-L’s fourth and fifth runners. Both were able to finish before the Mustangs’ fourth runner as Svalstad placed 13th and Seamans placed 16th.
The boys’ team were not able to replicate the girls’ success, but they still put on a solid performance in front of the home crowd. The Spartans placed fourth and were only 11 points away from a podium finish.
Two of the top-five scorers were freshman, including the top scorer for Solon, Anders Holmes. The youth provided a spark for the team while Spencer Michels had to miss the meet due to an injury and may not be able to return for the rest of the season.
Holmes placed 13th with a 17:45 while running in his first high school home meet. Senior Evan Burg was not far behind as he rolled into the finish in 19th place. The two were shortly joined across the finish line by junior Rene Meza in 24th and freshman Preston Raasch in 30th.
The final three runners on varsity all finished within 16 seconds of each other. Junior Camden Lyons placed 39th, freshman Deacon Waddel placed 40th, and junior Owen Young placed 42nd. The team is still working out a few kinks while trying to find runners to step up in Michel’s absence, but the strong finish at the Spartan Invitational was a step in the right direction.
“We’re seeing some great things where other runners are stepping up into roles and being good role models and leaders for us,” said Williams, “I think we’re really going to need that and continue to do that throughout the rest of the season.”
Both JV squads placed on the podium. The girls’ team placed second with three top ten finishers: freshman Quinn Armentrout, senior Aly Stahle, and freshman Kenley Murken.
The boys’ team placed third with junior Charlie Pettit placing ninth as the only Spartan in the top ten.
The middle school teams won both of their respective races. The girls placed four runners in the top ten: Mailee Schmidt in second, Nora Sanderson in sixth, Kali Poe in ninth, and Stella Beck in tenth. The boys placed their four scoring runners in the top eight on the path to victory. Macklin Svalstad won the meet for the Spartans. He was followed by Brooks Kabela in fourth, Jaimyn Lang in seventh, and Declan Doyle in eighth. The cross country teams race next at Anamosa Middle School on Saturday, Sept. 28.