Daily Journal Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year: Crystal’s Anna Salter

“I just really loved it,” Salter said. “I think, honestly, our team that year was so, so close. And it was just such a magical team. I haven’t met such a great group of girls since then. And I just loved working hard with them.”

What Salter wasn’t looking for, but quickly found, was a place on one of the greatest small-school cross country programs in state history.

“I had no idea, just because I was so new to running,” Salter said. “Everything was just so new and I had no idea what to do in terms of running. ... I think that’s what gave us so much success is because we were just running to have fun.”

Led by senior Kaiya Brooks, Crystal swept the Division V boys’ and girls’ team titles at the 2022 CIF State Cross Country Championships, with Brooks claiming the DV individual girls’ crown. Salter was Crystal’s second finisher, placing 23rd, and Dye, less than three seconds behind, placed 25th.

The 2022 girls’ state crown was the first in program history, but it wouldn’t be the last. Both Crystal’s girls’ and boys’ teams repeated as Division V state champs in 2023. And this year, fronted by Salter and Dye, the Gryphons returned to the top of the podium for the girls’ program’s third DV team title all-time, while recording the fastest team time in CIF Division V championship history.

Salter took fifth place in the state with a personal record, Nov. 29, on the 5,000-meter course at Fresno’s Woodward Park of 17 minutes, 43 seconds. This after she captured the West Bay Athletic League individual title, Nov. 7, on the 2.95-mile Crystal Springs Cross Country Course with a PR of 17:32.6, and returned a week later to earn her first Central Coast Section Division V individual crown in 17:41.7.

By virtue of her personal accolades, and for leading the Gryphons to their third state championship in four years, Salter has been named Daily Journal Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year.

“I was lucky to have her her senior year,” Crystal’s first-year coach David Urista said. “She was ready to rock and roll. But I feel like everything she’s done from her freshman year to this point has really paid off.”

Revered for her work ethic, Salter has built a blue-collar running career. A competitive swimmer since she was 7, Salter became disillusioned with water sports as she grew older. In landing at Crystal, she had raw talent, but wasn’t nearly as purely gifted a runner as Brooks, who now competes at Harvard University.

Salter, though, seized on the fortuitous timing of arriving at Crystal to run alongside the school’s most accomplished distance runner at the height of her powers.

“Kaiya was such a big role model,” Salter said. “Freshman year, I looked up to her so much.”

Now, as a senior, it is Salter who has become the role model. While that 2022 freshman class became the centerpiece of the 2025 state championship — Dye took eighth place in the Division V finals in 18:01.9, while senior Heidy Avina was Crystal’s third finisher in 31st place in 18:59.9 — the team was rounded out by juniors Annie Willis and Isabella Greenblatt, sophomore Sophia Cervantes and freshman Kendall Lee.

“Anna is an amazing runner and there’s so much I can say about her,” Urista said. “She’s the leader of the team, she does a great job of setting an example with her work ethic that really spills over to her teammates. ... The energy she brings on race day just radiates so much to her teammates, which is really fun to watch.”

Yet, Salter found herself in a class by herself throughout the postseason. At the WBAL championships, the chasm between the three top placers was over a minute and a half; Dye took second while finishing 47 seconds off Salter’s pace in 18:19.6, and Avina was third in 19:16.

It was more of the same at the CCS championships, with Salter hitting the tape over 33 seconds faster than Dye’s second-place time of 18:15.

“I was running alone, which isn’t ideal,” Salter said. “I’d just pretend someone is right behind me.”

Salter etched an individual feat in the Crystal record books as well.

A track-and-field distance specialist — who reached the CCS podium as a sophomore, taking third place in the 3,200 meters; and again as a junior, taking third in the 1,600 — Salter shined when Crystal took a respite from the cross country course to run an in-season track event at the Campolindo Mid-Season Mania 3200.

“I love it because I definitely run the track a lot, so I’m always happy to be back on the track in the middle of cross country season,” Salter said.

Salter has traditionally excelled in the event, having won it her junior year in a then-PR of 10:35.34. This year, though, she not only obliterated that PR with a time of 10:22.19, she broke Crystal’s school record in the 3,200, set by Brooks as a junior in 2022, of 10:23.66, by over a second. Salter’s program record also marks the seventh fastest time in CCS history in the event.

“I think she’ll definitely run a much faster 3,200 this track season as well,” Urista said.

With championships and records on her resume, Salter is still more invested in what brought her to the sport to begin with — the friendships — while she and Dye have one more chapter to write in their storied varsity running careers.

“It’s so great to have someone who is just as dedicated and loves the sports so much,” Salter said. “I haven’t met anyone as hard working as her. She’s a great training partner, and I can’t wait to see what she does this track season.”