FORT DODGE — Sydney Dee crossed the finish line in 20th place for the Solon girls cross country team at the 2024 Class 3A State Meet Friday, Nov. 1 in Fort Dodge. Finishing the race in 19:24, and after a brief pause to catch her breath, she waited for her teammates to join her at the f inish. 39 seconds later, Kinley Mai crossed the finish line quickly followed by Addison Seamans. Another 26 seconds passed, and Livya Nelson joined her teammates. And 25 seconds after that Ella Sheeley finished as the final scorer for the Lady Spartans.
As each girl finished, Dee was the first one to greet them. Through the chaos of 132 girls crossing the finish line and collapsing because of exhaustion, Dee tracked down every single teammate who competed in the race. She was quick with a hug and a smile. But the smiles quickly turned into tears when Dee realized that she had just finished her last ever race for Solon.
The Lady Spartans came into the year with expectations set high. They returned four of their five scorers from last year’s state meet and brought in a talented freshmen class. However, head coach Emy Williams never expected the team to finish in fourth place at the state meet.
“They just have come together as a team and really come and support each other,” said Williams. “I think that’s really what makes cross country so great is the way that they just support each other.”
The freshmen –Nelson, Mai, and Seamans – played a major role on the team in just their first year. All three scored for the Lady Spartans in every meet they ran at including the state meet, where the environment is unlike any other high school cross country meet in the state.
Under the eyes of thousands and with the intense expectations, the freshmen were thrust into the spotlight.
“First mile, it’s just going to be sound and there’s going to be people everywhere,” said Williams. “They handled their first state meet awesome. [They] just came out, they competed, they moved during the race. I’m super proud of them.”
Mai, Seamans, and Nelson were the second, third, and fourth runners across the finish line for Solon, providing key placements for the team to finish fourth in the state.
Mai finished in 34th with a time of 20:03. Seamans finished four seconds behind her in 38th with a time of 20:07. Then Nelson strolled across the finish line in 45th, finishing in 20:33. Senior Ella Sheeley rounded out the scorers for the Lady Spartans by placing 58th with a time of 20:58.
Sheeley and Dee did not just impact the team with their scores, as two seniors on a team loaded with freshmen, they took on a major leadership role to get the team prepared for the state meet.
“They both kind of just kept saying okay, now we’re going to do this, now we’re going to go here, this is what to expect next,” said Williams.
The strong leadership powered the team to a successful state meet and pushed the team’s expectations higher for future years. The three freshmen scorers and the sixth and seventh runners – Falyn Svalstad and Ava Rolwes – all can return next year with the important experience of competing at the state meet.
Dee and Sheeley will be graduated and have concluded their Solon cross country careers. They ended their time as Lady Spartans by helping the team finish four spots better than last year’s eighth place finish and helped make this team a closely knit team.
After the race, Dee found tears constantly trying to fight through her eyes and down rolling down her cheek that was stylized with sparkled dots.
“It’s really sad because I know I’m never going to have a practice or a race with them again,” said Dee, “It’s just it’s hard to think that it’s over with this team.”