Solon Returns to State Meet For Third Straight Season
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
MONTICELLO – Kiersten Conway can remember a time in her career that state qualifying meets came with plenty of anxious moments and just one goal – advancing to the state meet.
By the time Conway toed the starting line for her final state qualifier on Wednesday things were different for the Solon senior and her teammates.
During Conway’s career at Solon state meet berths have become an expectation rather than an end goal and the tension at state qualifiers had all but disappeared.
Led by a 10th place finish by Conway Class 3A fourth-ranked Solon secured its third straight state meet trip on Wednesday with a third-place finish at the state qualifying meet at Monticello High School.
Now the Spartans have bigger goals.
“We wanted to show teams that they should be looking for us at state,” Conway said. “That’s been the transition from my freshman year where we just talked about qualifying and that was our only goal to this year where we want to go to state and compete.”
Conway was an individual qualifier for state as a freshman.
The past two years the Spartans reached their goal of qualifying for state as a team finishing 11th and seventh at the state meet.
This season the Spartans entered the postseason wanting more than just a trip to state.
“We knew we had a really good chance of qualifying but we wanted to do more than that at this point,” Conway said. “We wanted to show today and show at state that we can run with the best teams.”
Solon got a sneak peak at how it stacked up against some of the best in Class 3A on Wednesday.
Defending 3A champion and third-ranked Dubuque Wahlert put three runners in the top five and won the team title with 26 points while sixth-ranked Davenport Assumption was second with 57 points.
Solon was third with 73 points but was comfortably clear of Monticello for the final state qualifying spot, finishing 38 points in front of the Panthers.
“It says a lot about our team that we knew we had a pretty good shot if we just came and did what we needed to do,” Solon coach Emy Williams said. “We didn’t necessarily have to do anything out of the ordinary to qualify today.”
While Dubuque Wahlert pulled away for the team title Solon used its signature depth to secure its own spot at state.
All seven Spartans finished in the top 20 with the top five Solon runners all placing in the top 18.
Conway was 10th in 19:57.3 followed by junior Emma Bock who was 14th in 20:12.3.
“We were so excited to be able to compete against (Wahlert) before state,” Bock said. “We knew what the rankings were and we were excited to see how we stacked up against them. I think it shows how much each person on our team has put into the program the past few years to get to the point where we can compete against all these amazing teams.”
Sophomore Mary Fiala finished 15th for Solon in 20:13.3 and freshman Anna Quillin was sixth in 20:14.4.
Solon will get another shot at Dubuque Wahlert next Friday at the Class 3A state meet at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge.
“We knew we were going to have some tough competition,” Williams said. “Assumption ran really, really well today and Wahlert they are the real deal after seeing them today but I’m proud of our girls and how they ran today.”
Class 3A State Qualifier
At Monticello High School
Team scores – 1. Dubuque Wahlert 26; 2. Davenport Assumption 57; 3. Solon 73; 4. Monticello 111; 5. Clear Creek Amana 145; 6. Washington 198; 7. Mount Pleasant 204; 8. West Delaware 214; 9. Cedar Rapids Xavier 245; 10. Maquoketa 259; 11. Central DeWitt 286
Individual leaders – 1. Gabby Moran (DW) 18:58.3; 2. Alix Oliver (DW) 19:09; 3. Haidyn Barker (CCA) 19:13.8; 4. Ellie Meyer (DW) 19:26.2; 5. Emma Althoff (MON) 19:27.7; 6. Ellie Kirby (DW) 19:39.1; 7. Laney Fitzpatrick (DA) 19:42.7; 8. Morgan Jennings (DA) 19:50.1; 9. Adrienne Theisen (DA) 19:55.8; 10. Kiersten Conway (SOL) 19:57.3; 11. Skylar Hoffman (DA) 19:59.5; 12. Abby Blint (MP) 20:06; 13. Alana Duggan (DW) 20:11; 14. Emma Bock (SOL) 20:12.3; 15. Mary Fiala (SOL) 20:13.3.
Solon (73) – 10. Kiersten Conway 19:57.3; 14. Emma Bock 20:12.3; 15. Mary Fiala 20:13.3; 16. Anna Quillin 20:14.4; 18. Meghan O’Neill 20:20.3; 19. Gracie Federspiel 20:39.6; 20. Ashlyn Williams 20:43.5
Clear Creek Amana (145) – 3. Haidyn Barker 19:13.8; 21. Kayla Jiras 20:52; 33. Avery Allan 21:47; 35. Emily Coleman 21:55.4; 53. Eva Plathe 23:05.6; 61. Allie Kounkel 23:25.7; 68. Meghan Cullen 23:51.2
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