Newton’s Shannon extends running career at Indian Hills

Alyssa Shannon, Rachelle Tipton and Noah Larrison are all in agreement.

Shannon was a late bloomer to running and has a lot left to give in her career.

Tipton hopes to get some of what’s left to come for Shannon this spring during track and field season and Larrison wants to get plenty more from Shannon at the collegiate level.

Shannon recently had her signing day at Newton High School as she is set to run cross country and track and field at Indian Hills Community College the next two years.

“I think she can jump right in and immediately be one of our top runners,” said Larrison, who is the assistant coach to head coach Brent Ewing at Indian Hills. “I look forward to working with her and seeing what we can do together.

“I think she will continue to get better and she’ll surprise a lot of people this spring. I think we got a steal.”

Shannon burst onto the scene as a junior last track season. She clinched state berths in both the 800- and 1,500-meter runs and anchored the Cardinals’ 4x800 relay team to state.

Her top times in both events were ran at the state meet. She was 11th in the 800 with a time of 2 minutes, 19.88 seconds and finished 12th in the 1,500 with a time of 4:57.33.

Shannon did not run the 400 very often but registered the team’s top time of 1:05.10. The 4x800 team Shannon ran on at state placed 16th, too.

The success spilled into cross country season this past fall. Competing in the sport for the first time, Shannon qualified for the state meet and finished 58th in Class 3A.

Admittedly, Shannon went out for cross country mostly to improve her chances during the track season. But she was better than even she thought and will do both sports for the Warriors.

“They are getting someone who is willing to work hard and willing to improve and she has the right mindset to be a college runner,” said Tipton, who is Newton’s head girls cross country coach and co-head girls track and field coach with Rachel Tomas.

Shannon chose Indian Hills over Central College and Simpson College. She wants to be a dental hygienist and it will only take her two years to get that degree at Indian Hills.

She’s not sure if she wants to compete at a four-year school when the two years at Indian Hills are up.

“It’s close to Newton and they have a nice program, too,” Shannon said.

Larrison said he expects Shannon to focus mostly on the 1,500 in college. Shannon feels like she will be an asset in the 800 and 3,000 as well.

Tipton hopes to tweak a few things in Shannon’s 1,500 this spring. The Cardinal senior runs negative splits but could improve as a front-end runner.

“She just needs to continue to tweak that race,” Tipton said about the 1,500. “She’s a back-end runner, which is great. We’ll work on the front end to make it a complete race.”

Larrison said Coach Ewing brought Shannon to his attention and the coaching staff brought her in for a visit. He thinks she’s a great fit for their program.

“We really liked her and a lot of the girls on our team liked her, too,” Larrison said. “They thought she’d be a good asset to our program. We’ve been trying to emphasize the cross country side of things. I saw her times and thought she’d be a perfect fit for the team.”

There have been a few recent signings from Newton’s girls track and field team, but Shannon is the first female cross country runner to move on to college since Grace Coen, according to Tipton.

“It’s really neat and very exciting,” Tipton said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had someone from cross country do this. It shows the younger athletes that this is something they can do.”

Shannon is ready for her final season on the oval. She comes into the spring with high expectations.

“I think there’s more to give. More to do,” Shannon said. “I was running earlier this offseason than I did last year so I think that will help.”