Speedy sophomore Olivia Howell excels on girls XC team

Solon High School’s had many great athletes, and sophomore Olivia Howell is one of the fastest girls in SHS history with a mile time of five minutes and twenty-six seconds. Howell’s speed recently landed her a spot to compete in Taiwan over the summer.

Howell has been running cross country for four years and also participates in track. She practices almost every day for both teams.

“Individually I do two workouts every week,” Howell said. “I usually [go for] long runs on Sundays to keep [my mileage] up.”

Runners usually spend the entire summer training. SHS senior Gina Gersey, who has run  cross country and track for four years, described how everyone starts running right after school to build up their mileage. Despite the hard workouts, Gersey said it’s totally worth it.

“I love team bonding, running, and also pasta parties which we have after every meet,” Gersey said. “We run [together] everyday. We all love each other and everyone is accepting of each other, so that’s really great. They’re a great group of girls.”

The team’s kindness stretches further than just their bonding. When running together, team members push each other to work harder. Anna Guseilo, the team’s assistant coach for the past six years, described how Olivia impacts the team while running.

“She’s always pushing everyone to work extremely hard, and to just do their best,” Guseilo said.

Competing at meets is one thing, but over the summer Howell competed in the International Children’s Games in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Howell said she was nervous to compete internationally because her competitors were very talented. The race was also different for her because she ran the 800 meter event, not her traditional style of long distance. Due to this, Howell had to practice sprints more. In the end, her hard work paid off, as she won the meet with a time of two minutes and eighteen seconds.

When Howell placed first, she was ecstatic– but she wasn’t the only one who was thrilled. When Guseilo found out Howell was running, she could hardly believe it.

“It was wild,” Guseilo said. “It’s such an honor for any runner, but especially one of our own from Solon to get to run in a competition like that.”

Howell described her overall experience in Taiwan as life changing. She looks forward to competing in a similar competition again, but for now she’s training for the regular season meets that the SHS cross country team competes in every Saturday morning.

With all the hard work everyone puts in, Gersey has high hopes for this years season.

“I hope we get into states as a team and win, of course,” she said. “And I hope everyone just has [a lot of] fun and improves with their running.”

Howell hopes to keep  improving her running time. She even dreams of achieving goals higher than just improving her speed, or even competing internationally again.

“I have a goal of going to the Olympics,” Howell said. “I know it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get there. [For now], I’m just going to keep on improving my times.”