Aug. 24—Heading into the cross country season that officially started for many of the teams at Monday’s War on the Shore at Lakeside Park, Stephen Sly had just one question for himself … why not?
Sly said he felt like he wasn’t in the kind of shape he needed to be in for the 2021 spring varsity track season. For the start of the fall running season, Sly, a junior, decided things would be different.
Monday was a pretty good start as he won the boys meet at Lakeshore Park in a time of 18:25.97.
Grand Valley’s David Steimle was second at 18:52.57, and Geneva’s Owen Schroeder took fourth at 19:18.14.
Sly said he went into the race, feeling like he had something to prove.
“I’ve been following some guys from around the county and I was like ‘man they’ve been beating me in track and I’d really like to beat them,'” he said. “I was like ‘Why not.’? That’s basically what I did. I got off to a strong start and I was able to put it away.”
A Division II regional cross country qualifier a year ago, Sly wasted little time jumping out in front of the pack and never allowed anyone to get close throughout the race.
After a spring track season that he said did not meet his expectations, Sly said he recommitted himself to running this summer and the results showed up Monday.
“We went on vacation and I did a lot of running in some high altitude places and that was really cool,” he said. That was one thing I really changed over the summer. “I changed my mentality about long-distance as well. I wanted to get more consistency.”
Sly won his first cross country race and it helped Jefferson to place second in the team standings.
He was one of two Falcons in the top 10. Josh Diehl was seventh with a time of 19:52.18. Andrew Hitchcock posted 12th and and Grayson Moody checked in 18th to help secure the team runner-up trophy.
Diehl said he knew this season, guys like himself and others would need to step up to make a difference.
“Last year, Steve [Sly] and Luke Robinson, they led our team,” Diehl said. “But, I think the back half of us were really lackadaisical. This year, I really hope we’re using him. He’s really motivating us all to push a little harder.”
Pushing a little harder caught the eye of their coach as well.
“They showed me something today,” coach T.J. Furman said. “Basically our goal was not running against ourselves. I think that sometimes we’re our own worst enemy and we had to get past that part mentally and I’m really proud of us.”
The performance by Sly was something the coach feels he, as well as others on the team, can build off from as the season progresses.
“I think it was just confidence,” Furman said. “He has the talent to do it. Just believing in their ability and believing “I can do it.” I think that’s a lot of these kids too. They have to get past that part, so I’m very proud of them.”
Top finishers for other county teams and Madison were Madison’s Izaiah Siler, 11th; Edgewood’s Kurt Corrigan 15th; Lakeside’s Thurston Shaw 22nd and PV’s Mason Summers 30th.
John Gottwig was the lone runner for St. John.