ANAMOSA — The sun was blocked out by the clouds, the landscape masked by a thin fog, the air was brisk, the grass was damp from the rain the day prior, and spectators were dressed in sweatshirts and jackets. Many would consider an August morning like this unpleasant, but to Solon Cross Country Coach Emy Williams, the Saturday morning was beautiful for her runners.
Coach Williams was proud of both the girls’ and boys’ performances in their first meet of the season. She was happy for the runners to finally get the opportunity to race against athletes from other schools instead of just their teammates.
Solon girls placed first at the meet with 36 points, with four of their runners placing in the top 10.
“We’re a pretty young team,” said Coach Williams.
Despite this, she was impressed with the freshmen who stepped up in their first meet.
In the girls’ race, Solon had two freshmen who, in their first meets, placed in the top 20, with one placing in the top five.
“We had lots of packs all the way through from the beginning to the end,” Coach Williams said.
She explained that running in groups during their meets was a strategy they talked about in practice to help the runners push each other to be better.
William’s strategy was apparent when looking at the spots that the Solon girls finished at.
Leading the Solon girls was junior Falyn Svalstad, who finished 4th, running 21:19. Right after her was freshman Mailee Schmidt (21:19, 5th) and she was followed immediately by sophomore Livya (Liv) Nelson (21:32, 6th). Then came sophomore Addison Seamans (21:42, 8th). After her was freshman Kali Poe (22:14, 13th), sophomore Quinn Armentrout (22:30, 16th), and junior Jillian Jansen (23:18, 23rd).
The girls who placed 4th, 5th and 6th seemed to be grouped up the entire race, showing off how important this strategy was not only to Coach Williams, but to her runners as well.
As for the Solon boys, they placed second in the meet with 83 points on the day.
The Solon boys were led by sophomore Anders Holmes, who placed 10th, running 17:32. After him was senior Rene Meza (17:40, 12th), and sophomore Deacon Waddell, who set a personal record (17:56, 15th). Following them was sophomore Preston Raasch, who set a personal record (18:03, 20th), senior Spencer Michels (18:44, 28th), senior Charlie Pettit (19:17, 45th), and freshman Colton Kolar (19:27, 47th).
Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Coach Williams has hopes of qualifying for state for the 8th straight year for the girls and to make it back to state with the boys, who didn’t qualify last year, but for now she wants to focus on the day-to-day.
“Every meet we are… trying something different so they [the runners] can run their best meet come October,” said Coach Williams.