Since she didn’t know how to play soccer or field hockey in seventh grade, Salini Iyer had one other option for athletic participation at Community Middle School. The overhead was low when it came to equipment, so she took it and ran with it. Literally.
“I wanted to sign up for a sport, so I tried cross country,” Iyer recalled. “You just need a pair of shoes. I went out and was like, ‘OK, I’ll do this, see if I like it.’ I ended up liking it honestly. It was just like ‘Well, this isn’t horrible.’”
And while “This isn’t horrible” isn’t quite the number one recruiting pitch used by cross country coaches, it was enough to keep Iyer involved in the sport 10 years later. In late August she will report to The College of New Jersey for her fourth and final season and is also one of their key performers.
“Sal is solidly one of our top runners on a team that returns six of our top seven from last year,” TCNJ distance coach Mike Walker said. “We have two other seniors to go along with Sal that give us a very talented top three, and any one of them will contend for the conference title and can place in the top 10 at the NCAA regional meet. Sal has the experience and track times to back up lofty goals, and I anticipate her being a big part of the team’s success.”
Iyer is certainly hoping that is the case as she would like to have one issue-free autumn with the Lions.
After a standout senior cross-country season at West Windsor-Plainsboro North—when she finished second in the Mercer County meet, third in Central Jersey Group III and 21st in Group III states – Salini arrived at TCNJ in 2020 during the midst of COVIS-19.
The New Jersey Athletic Conference ran an abbreviated cross-country season in the late winter of 2021, and Iyer won the NJAC meet in her only freshman race.
In the fall of her sophomore year, she missed time early in the season due to a calf issue and covid, but she came back to finish seventh in the NJAC race and 35th in the regionals. Last fall, frustration continued as Salini sustained a lower leg injury (possibly from poor footing) in the Lehigh Paul Short race but returned in time to finish seventh in the NJAC and 32nd at regionals.
“I think junior year is when people expect to have pretty big time drops because you’ve been in the game a couple years and you understand college running,” she said. “It was definitely frustrating not to race every single race that all my teammates did.
“But I was glad to be able to place at the NJAC and contribute to regionals as well. I’m glad my comeback was as good as it was. I was a little surprised. I was actually really nervous for NJACs. I wasn’t running as much as everybody else was. But I guess in the summer is where your mileage and the magic really happen.”
Indeed, it is, and Iyer has already logged a mess of miles this summer. In mid-June she started in the 25-mile per week range. By late July she was up to 40 and by early August she hopes to build up to 55.
“If you just want to run at the start of practice, you’re a little too late,” she said with a laugh.
Iyer also runs track and is coming off her best indoor and spring seasons to date. She remained healthy and ran a 5:14 mile indoors and a 4:52 1500 meters outdoors. She also had PRs in the 800 meters and 3K; and qualified for both indoor and outdoor regional championship meets.
“That was definitely a confidence boost knowing that I’m not old and rickety and I won’t be running well anymore,” Iyer said. “It was like ‘OK I have more to give; my speed isn’t lost somewhere.’ So, I’m excited for cross country. And cross country is a different animal honestly. It’s a lot more fun in my opinion, so I’m excited.”
And why is that?
“It’s mostly the team thing, everybody is running the same exact race,” Iyer said. “You have the same exact training; everybody is so close knit. To me it’s really special. If you don’t do cross country, you wouldn’t understand. It’s like having a group of 30 girls all running toward the same goals at the same races.
“It’s just so much more special than when somebody is running a 5K, somebody else is running a 1500. You’re all kind of in your own world. So it’s nice to have that one team goal with everybody pushing each other up because we’re all running that same exact race.”
That being said, Iyer still enjoys track, where she runs middle distance and the 1600. She feels the training helps for cross country.
“It helps with speed and strength,” she said “Personally I feel like I’m a strength runner rather than a pure distance/endurance runner. I think my track speed and track strength, the lifting and stuff like that, helps me in cross country whether it’s like the last mile or changing gears or something like that.”
In describing Iyer as a runner, Walker said “Sal is as tough as they come, and she does not cheat herself in any race. No matter the place or time, you know Sal ran the best she could for that day.”
That toughness impressed her teammates enough to vote Iyer a captain for the second straight year. Walker feels it’s a title she was born to have.
“Sal is a natural leader and shows confidence in herself,” the coach said. “She is a great person to her teammates and friends, and she is also very competitive and hard-nosed. She has all the qualities that make people want to follow her.”
Due to losing her freshman year to Covid, Iyer is a junior eligibility-wise but a senior academically. Rather than PG and stay another year for cross country, she wants to graduate and hopefully get a job in finance with Johnson & Johnson, where she has been interning.
Thus, she would love to make her last cross-country season something special. Her team goals are for the Lions to make it to the NCAA Division III nationals after coming close last year, and for TCNJ to repeat as NJAC champion. As for individual goals, she hopes to reach nationals with the team or with a Top 10 region finish, and she’s gunning for a Top 5 NJAC finish “or maybe just win the NJAC.”
However, it plays out, Iyer just wants to be in good health throughout the autumn for once. She feels good entering the preseason practices after her typical long-distance workouts this summer.
When asked what she thinks about during those long runs, Salini chuckled.
“Honestly, like, nothing,” she said. “I guess I think about things that have happened during the day at times but then you get to a certain point where you just stop thinking, or you’re just looking around enjoying the view. I don’t listen to music when I run. People think I’m crazy, but I don’t like it. I just like being out and free.”
After all, it isn’t horrible.
In addition to running cross country at the College of New Jersey, Salini Iyer (above) also runs track and is coming off her best indoor and spring seasons to date.,
