Spartans cross country features three local runners

It’s a brand new look for Southwestern Spartans cross country — five freshmen making up the team that kicks off the season Friday at Simpson College in Indianola.

Of those five freshman, three are local runners.

“I don’t think I’ve had a Union County kid since I’ve been coaching, other than track,” coach Scott Vicker said. “As far as cross country, I don’t remember any.”

Jacob Driskill of Creston is an East Union graduate with cross country and track experience. He qualified for state cross country as a junior and senior and ran at state track in the 800 as a senior.

Two Creston graduates, Dillon Starlin and Brandon Briley, will be running cross country for the first time as they were both played football for the Panthers.

Briley was a track star for the Panthers, running at state track his sophomore, junior and senior years. His Freshman year he was a relay alternate. As a senior, he medaled in the 800m run.

Starlin played soccer in the spring, but has improved greatly since practicing with the Spartans.

“We’ve been practicing for a few weeks now,” Vicker said. “It’s been really nice to have the three local kids on the team. In Brandon’s and Dillon’s case where they are new to cross country, they are still learning the routes we run, but they are used to the area. It’s helpful to Zach [Roome] and Cameron [Swapsy] who are still new to the area.”

Swapsy comes to the Spartans from Middleton, Wisconsin. He and Driskill are the two runners coming in with high school cross country experience.

Coming from Sydney, Australia, Roome brings track experience with a 1:53.34 personal best in the 800m.

Vicker isn’t concerned with the lack of high school cross country experience. Chase Oates, the program’s first Region 11 cross country champion, also came to the Spartans with a football background.

“A lot of people will be excited not to have to race against Chase, but they will be surprised by what we put together this year as a group,” Vicker said. “It’s been great to see a whole team buy in like Chase did. It worked really well for him, and I think it will work well for them as well.”

Based on the time trials, Vicker expects to have four who can run together as a pack and then pull away later in the race based on who is feeling good.

Briley came in at the lead during time trials, followed by Roome and Swapsy together. Driskill finished next with Starlin at fifth.

“As Jacob gets more confident in himself, as he continues to up his training, he’s going to be right with those top three guys,” Vicker said. “Dillon has made such an improvement already. When we did the time trial, he took 83 seconds off his previous time.”

The top three runners were under 17:35 in their 5K time with all five under 18:41.

“This has been by far the best group I’ve had in my coaching career in terms of getting summer mileage in,” Vicker said. “In previous years, I’ve only had two instances with two runners going 18:41 or faster at the time trial.”

Blood lactate testing for athletes has become more common as it helps provide insights into how the body responds to different exercise intensities.

It helps coaches orient future training decisions based on the athlete’s strenghts, weaknesses and specific needs.

Testing results showed Starlin, Briley and Roome tolerating high amounts of lactate with Starlin tolerating the most.

“The results for all five of the guys were really good,” Vicker said. “That kind of sets up what each of them will do training-wise for the rest of the season. It helps us work on their weaknesses or lean on their strengths to give them the best chance of success during cross country.”

Vicker said the team has done a great job of buying into the training philosophy so far, but the season will be a learning experience for the young team.

“I hope they stay patient with it because it is a long season,” he said. “We may not run our best here early on, but as we progress through the year, they will get better and better. When we get to regionals, we may surprise some people with how we run as a team. I’m excited to see how they improve from meet to meet.”

Though the team doesn’t have any home meets this year, Vicker hopes the local runners will get the community engaged in the team.

“Community members at the very least are going to recognize the names,” Vicker said. “Hopefully people will be keeping track of how they compete.”

After Friday’s 6K opener in Indianola, the Spartans will have three weeks of training before the first 8K of the season on Sept. 21 at the Greeno-Dirksen Invite, co-hosted by University of Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University. Friday’s meet is the closest to Creston.