Holt Makes The Most of His Time

— Dalton Holt was by no means an avid runner, but he wanted to be involved in as many extracurricular activities as possible during his senior year at Springdale High.

So, Holt decided to go out for the school’s track and field team after several friends convinced him he could compete immediately for the Bulldogs.

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Dalton Holt

SCHOOL: Springdale High

CLASS: Senior

HEIGHT: 6-1

WEIGHT: 133

NOTABLE: This is his first year competing in track and field as well as cross country. ... Recently ran a 5K race in under 18 minutes, clocking in at 17 minutes, 59.9 seconds. ... Will a member of Springdale’s 4x800 relay team at the Arkansas State Indoor Track and Field Meet on Saturday. ... Plans to attend Arkansas next year.

“I thought I was fast, so I thought, ‘Why not give it a shot?’” Holt said.

However, once the 6-foot-1, 133-pound senior stepped onto the track in late August, he found he had a hard time keeping up with Springdale’s other runners. He had never run competitively, and he wondered what had he gotten himself into by joining the team.

“I thought it’d be a lot easier than it turned out to be, and I was struggling a lot at the beginning,” Holt said. “But I stuck with it, and it became a lot easier.”

Holt improved his conditioning, and now that he’s no longer getting winded during runs, he has shown he can hang with the pack and even surprise himself with his times. He has emerged as one of Springdale’s faster runners, and he recently achieved his goal of running a 5K race in under 18 minutes.

The senior’s development will continue Saturday when he competes with the Bulldogs at the Arkansas State Indoor Track and Field Meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center. He’ll be a part of Springdale’s 4x800 relay team, and there is a chance he could run in several individual events as well.

“I’ve seen tremendous improvement because I can’t tell you for sure what he ran in his first meet, but I can tell you he went from pretty much an unknown to finishing in the top 40 or so at state,” Springdale coach Godrey Siamusiye said of Holt. “He was my third fastest on the team.”

Siamusiye admitted he had his doubts while watching Holt go through his first few practices in the fall. Siamusiye thought the senior had the potential to be a solid runner, but he also wondered if Holt would simply quit the team out of frustration.

“I thought he had a chance because for the most part most kids don’t last more than 10 days,” Siamusiye said. “If they’re going to quit, they’ll quit in the first 10 days. So, I kind of watched him the first 10 days to see.”

Nothing about Holt’s immediate impact surprises Siamusiye anymore.

The newcomer has become a dedicated runner, regularly working out on his own. And now that he has run the 5K in under 18 minutes, his next goal is to break two minutes in the 800 meters.

Holt said he’s taking a simple strategy into Saturday, which will mark his first time competing on an indoor track. He wants to hang with the runner in front of him.

Considering how much he has progressed over the past few months, is there any part of Holt that regrets waiting until his senior year to start competing in track?

“I beat myself up for not joining a lot sooner,” Holt said. “I think I could have been in a lot better shape and ready to run at the next level. But regardless, I’m going to work and get there eventually.”

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