Solinsky (center) comes to the Gators after three years on William & Mary's coaching staff.
Solinsky Rechanneling Competitive Fire Into Coaching
Monday, July 24, 2017 | Track and Field, Cross Country
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"If I was an athlete looking around, I would definitely want that: a coach that’s super passionate, cares, and is willing to stick by you.” --Matt Tegenkamp, two-time Olympian
By: Zach Dirlam
It is a fall Saturday in 2001. Oct. 27, to be exact. Chris Solinsky, then a junior at Stevens Point Area Senior High School, stares at the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association State Cross Country Meet results in absolute disbelief.
Solinsky has won his second consecutive individual state title—by a whopping 32 seconds. He could not care less. His eyes remain fixed on the same two lines, reading them over and over again, hoping his mind is too exhausted to process what he's seeing.
1. Neenha – 130
2. Stevens Point – 131
Though he beat Neenha's top runner by nearly a minute, Solinsky's efforts were, in his mind, futile. Moments later, he erupts, unleashing all his frustration with one ferocious yell.
Solinsky is not upset with his teammates. Quite the opposite. His disappointment is palpable because his dominance could not win that championship forhis teammates.
"That was his chance to be on a state championship team," said Donn Behnke, Stevens Point's boys cross country head coach since 1977. "We won it when he was in eighth grade, we won it the year after he left us, but the four years in between we were not really able to do that. That was frustrating for him.
Solinsky's always prized team achievements over individual titles. (Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
"When he says the team is important to him, he's not just saying that because it's what you're supposed to say. He's saying it because that comes from the heart."
This moment, not the totality of his accomplished running career (more on that shortly), is emblematic of why, 16 years later, Solinsky is a perfect fit for Florida's track and field and cross country coaching staff. The Gators churn out individual NCAA and SEC champions year after year. But the alarming rate at which they're winning team titles (seven national and conference titles apiece since 2010) is more important to head coach Mike Holloway and every member of his program. That resonated with Solinsky.
"That's what is great about the University of Florida," Solinsky said via phone interview shortly before his official hiring announcement. "Accomplishing an individual goal without the team excitement isn't nearly as rewarding or fulfilling as something everyone is working towards. Being a part of that family striving towards it … when it all comes together it's something special."
***
Even going back to his days as an eight-time state champion at Stevens Point, Solinsky always wanted to be a coach. The plan was to run collegiately, get his degree, then become a high school teacher and coach. Early in his career at University of Wisconsin, his thoughts turned to coaching collegiately.
"Luckily, my own running got in the way," he joked.
Luck never had much, if anything, to do with Solinsky's success. That came from his relentless competitive drive and a willingness to push his body to (and oftentimes past) its breaking point. His father, Wayne Solinsky, is the one to thank for those traits.
Chris gave up soccer, his first passion, and joined the cross country team in eighth grade. He ran with his father every day, and lost every day.
Wayne ran one cross country season at Stevens Point, in 1977, his senior year and Behnke's first season as head coach. Wayne's family lived on a dairy farm. Work at home left no time for offseason training and, according to a Sports Illustrated story, he could only join the team after "he promised his father he would give up bow-hunting because only one leisure activity was allowed."
Wayne refused to give Chris anything when it came to running. Behnke recalls Wayne "taking Chris out and grinding the little guy into the dirt." The fact he was a grown man racing a soon-to-be high schooler did not matter. Wayne grew up without any excuses. Chris would not get any either.
Each loss served a purpose, for both father and son. Chris became annoyed. Wayne welcomed the irritation, knowing it would make his son tougher, drive him to work harder, will him to run the extra miles no one else would.
"That was Wayne. That was the mentality," Behnke said. "I know there came a day where Chris reversed that on him."
By the time Solinsky arrived at Wisconsin, nothing could break the fiercely-competitive racer forged from those runs.
Solinsky's teammates discovered as much in the summer of 2003, his freshman year. The Badgers' upperclassmen took the freshmen on a 70-minute run to, according to then-junior Matt Tegenkamp, find their physical and mental breaking points. And there was a little extra motivation to humble Solinsky.
"The very first time I met Chris, he was wearing a (University of) Michigan hat at a University of Wisconsin camp, so he kind of earned it," said Tegenkamp, a two-time Olympian and eventually one of Solinsky's professional teammates at the Bowerman Track Club. "Anything we threw at him, he was just going to suck it up … and it was going to make him better. That was his outlook. He could definitely take the short-term grind for the long-term payoff down the road."
Solinsky (second from right) finished third overall to help Wisconsin win the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championship.
Five individual NCAA titles, a pair of team national titles, and a professional contract with Nike was the payoff after four years with the Badgers.
Then came the defining moment of Solinsky's career: the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials 5,000 meters final.
Top-three finishers earn a spot on the team. Running with the lead group, Solinsky raced to the front with 1,000 meters to go. It was an aggressive move, one with victory in mind, not second or third place. Such was Solinsky's mentality. He always raced to win. Fast times and qualifying for teams were merely bonuses. On that day, it burned him, as he faded down the homestretch and finished fifth.
"Third (was) as important as first and I lost sight of that," Solinsky told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shortly after his retirement in 2016.
Just like those losses to his father, though, he was better off for it.
The following year he made the United States' team for World Championships, and he did so again in 2011. Breaking the American 10,000 meters record—becoming the first non-African to crack 27 minutes at that distance—made him a household name among U.S. distance fans in 2010.
Solinsky was an afterthought (if that) entering the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational 10,000 meters. He'd never even run a 10k before. Nike sent a film crew to the meet and ran a promotional campaign around Galen Rupp. The two were teammates at the time, and the race was set up for Rupp to break Meb Keflezighi's American record of 27 minutes, 13.98 seconds.
None of this entered Solinsky's mind. Besides, for him, this race was only supposed to test his fitness. He did however think about winning, or at least competing for as long as his body would allow.
"I'm going to beat the people I'm racing against," Solinsky thought to himself. "I don't care what they run. I'm going to run it. I'm going to try to beat 'em."
Such is why it surprises no one close to him when he says, despite the magnitude of that moment, it was not the top memory from his career. Solinsky did not break a record or even win his most unforgettable race: the 2011 U.S. Outdoor Championships 5,000 meters final.
Bernard Lagat, the American record holder, and Rupp were the favorites. Solinsky and Tegenkamp devised a plan to run a hard final 3,000 meters, thinking it would be the only way to beat Lagat and Rupp.
Tegenkamp took the lead and pushed the pace with 3,000 meters to go. Solinsky replaced him with a little more than 1,200 left. In the end, Lagat was still too much, but he only held Solinsky off by six tenths of a second. For Solinsky, the fact he finished second never mattered. His whole career he demanded everyone's best shot. Slow, tactical races be damned. Opponents would have to suffer to beat him, and if they did, he could live with it; they earned it.
"That race just defined the way Chris approached racing," Tegenkamp said. "It's an honor when you've got an athlete in Bernard Lagat basically turn to Chris at the end of a race and say, 'I've never run a harder race in my life.'
"That's saying something."
***
Chris Solinsky, the runner, is who he was. It may as well be a past life altogether. Today, Chris Solinsky is a father to his 22-month-old daughter, Ayla, a husband to his college sweetheart, Amy, and a coach.
Chris and his daughter, Ayla, who turns two in September.
During his three years coaching at William & Mary, his running career only came up if a student-athlete asked about it. Even then it was just to share an anecdote or piece of advice.
"Chris keeps his running accomplishments separate from his coaching," said Regan Rome, a rising senior for the Tribe. "Just because he's an accomplished runner doesn't mean he's going to be an accomplished coach, and he knows that. He's ready to put in the work."
Tegenkamp's heard the same things in recent conversations with Solinsky, still one of his best friends to date. Solinsky was the best man at his wedding.
"He's just going to keep trying to soak up knowledge," Tegenkamp said. "He's rechanneling all that competitive fire into coaching and development of the athletes. If I was an athlete looking around, I would definitely want that: a coach that's super passionate, cares, and is willing to stick by you over the course of a very long period of time."
Throughout his entire career, Solinsky always maintained strong relationships with his coaches. He paid close attention to what they said, often inquiring as to why things were being done and soaking everything in like a sponge.
The ups and downs of his own career—cut far too short by injuries—serve as a useful teaching tool.
He has no regrets. Every now and again he thinks about what could have been, what making an Olympic team would have been like, what emotions winning a world title would have brought. Nevertheless, those things don't drive him as a coach. A genuine love for his student-athletes and their successes, whether it be a title or a personal record, are all that matter now.
The rest simply makes for a great story he can tell Ayla when she grows up, assuming she asks her father for some running advice.
Chances are her father will breeze right through it anyway. After all, Solinsky calls Ayla the greatest achievement of his life.
"As exciting as the job offer and new career path was, the highlight of the day (I took the job) was FaceTiming Ayla and having her scream, 'Daddy!'" Solinsky said. "Family is really important to me. Something that really shone through with the staff is how family-oriented they were. That was pretty infectious."
Tegenkamp offered up a piece of advice to help Solinsky enjoy everything to come in Ayla's life, though it will no doubt be quite an adjustment. "Patience," he laughed. "I'm still learning patience."
With his racing days behind him, patience should not be much of an issue for Solinsky.
On the other hand, that burning desire to win has yet to be extinguished. It may be greater than ever. Every victory is for the team now.
