Skye Siddoway Wasn't Sure She'd Run Again. Snow College's Freshman Took Third at Riverside

Skye Siddoway crossed the line third at the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 19, running the women's open 5K in 17:40.9. Only an unattached runner, Kyra Compton (17:21.0), and UC Irvine's Kaitlin Kenney (17:39.1) finished ahead of her, and 293 placed runners finished behind her, among them USC, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Fullerton.

It was the second college race for the Snow College freshman from Farmington, who could not run for her senior year of high school.

"I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run again," Siddoway said on Snow's *From the Badger Den* podcast four days after the race.

From soccer to running

Siddoway started track in eighth grade, and not because she meant to be a runner. "I grew up playing soccer and so I kind of just did track to like stay in shape for soccer," she said on the podcast.

She played soccer and ran cross country until 10th grade, when there was no longer time for both. Running won. "Running is fun and I like running more and I'm better at it," she said.

Snow's roster lists her as a 5-foot-6 freshman from Farmington, a Farmington High School graduate and an Outdoor Leadership major.

The fall at the start of senior year

"It was right as senior year started," Siddoway said. "I was climbing a tree and I fell out."

She said the fall left her with "a really bad brain injury." "I had like four brain surgeries, I was like in a coma for a while," she said. Snow's episode notes say she suffered "a severe brain injury during her senior year of high school," underwent multiple brain surgeries and spent time in a coma.

Nobody could tell her how the recovery would go. "I'm really lucky with how everything turned out because I didn't know like how I was going to recover, like nobody really knew," she said. She could not run for the rest of her senior year.

It also ended the recruiting conversations she had started. "I was talking to coaches beforehand, but then like that all happened, so I wasn't talking to anyone anymore," she said. "Then I was able to come to Snow and like start running again."

Why she chose Snow College

She chose Snow after a call with Chase Englestead, the head coach of both the men's and women's cross country programs. "I had a call with coach and he just seemed really like committed to like getting me to the next level," Siddoway said. She said he seemed like he could build a personalized plan for her and came across as a confident coach who could take her where she wanted to go.

Her first four college races

Her first college race came at the Utah Valley University Invitational at Scera Park in Orem on Sept. 4. She was 50th in the women's 3-mile in 18:38.28, and Snow finished sixth as a team. "I was like super nervous because like my first race in a while obviously, and I didn't know like where I would be," she said.

Riverside came two weeks later, and it was new ground. "This is like my first time racing sea level," she said. She went in without a strict plan: get into the top group and see whether she could hang on. Her coach had told her not to stress about her pace at low elevation, and she called the race "kind of experimental, see where I'm at, see if I can push it."

She did, and she still found the effort hard. "I don't notice it feeling easier, harder during the race, but I can just go faster at low elevation," she said. Snow's women were third of 32 teams with 141 points, behind Cal Poly Pomona (77) and UC Irvine (96). Freshman teammate True Watson was 13th in 18:17.3.

Snow's podcast named Siddoway its Redmond Relyte Player of the Week after the race. She had gone in with one number. "For this race I did want to go sub 18," she said. Her 17:40.9 beat it by more than 19 seconds, and she has a longer-range target: "Eventually in the future I want to go like 17:20."

The Southern Utah Color Country Invitational at Cedar Ridge Golf Course on Oct. 3 was a tougher day: she was 25th in the 5K in 19:45.79, with Snow fifth of six teams.

She was back near the front at Utah State's Steve T. Reeder Memorial in Logan on Oct. 9, finishing fourth in the women's 5K in 19:03.0 behind Utah State's Sarah Ellis (18:09.5) and Addy Duellman (18:53.3) and Northern Colorado's Sabina Stroia (18:56.4). Freshman teammate Addie Hurst was seventh in 19:26.1, and Snow's 46 points edged Northern Colorado's 47 for second place behind Utah State.

What goes through her mind in a race

Siddoway runs a cross country race one mile at a time. The first mile is about patience: "be patient, just go … don't go out too fast."

The second is for moving up. "That's when I like trying to pass people, so I'm just like staring at like their back of their jerseys and I'm just like trying to think, can I get up there? Can I pass that girl?"

The third is the hardest. "Third mile I don't have the best mentality," she said, and on the last mile at Riverside she had been thinking, "ouch, ouch, this hurts, this hurts." What gets her to the line is "just trying to keep like good positive thought," including telling herself, "last little bit, like you got this."

Her teammates help with that. "We encourage each other, we cheer each other on, like during the races, like we're all trying to stay together," she said. "We're all just super happy if anyone has like a good race."

What comes next

Siddoway is open about where she wants the times to take her. "I want to go to a four-year school after, so it feels really good because I want like the coaches to know me," she said of beating runners from four-year programs at Riverside.

The team goal is bigger. "We're going to try and win nationals, and it just made it seem like yeah, we could do this," she said of the Riverside result.

Snow's schedule listed the Scenic West Athletic Conference championship in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Oct. 30; Snow had not posted results from it when this story was published. The NJCAA Cross Country Championships follow on Nov. 14 in Huntsville, Alabama.

For more on Snow's fall, see Snow College's From the Badger Den podcast and the Utah JUCO pipeline hub.

Key facts:

• Athlete: Skye Siddoway, freshman, Snow College women's cross country and track
• Hometown: Farmington, Utah (Farmington High School)
• Best result: 3rd of 296 at the UC Riverside Invitational women's open 5K, Sept. 19, 2026, in 17:40.9
• Other 2026 results: 50th at the UVU Invitational 3-mile (18:38.28, Sept. 4); 25th at the SUU Color Country Invitational 5K (19:45.79, Oct. 3); 4th at the Steve T. Reeder Memorial 5K (19:03.0, Oct. 9)
• Background: a fall from a tree at the start of her senior year of high school led to what she called "a really bad brain injury," four brain surgeries and time in a coma, in her own account
• Coach: Chase Englestead, Snow College cross country head coach
• Snow's next scheduled meet: NJCAA Cross Country Championships, Nov. 14, 2026, Huntsville, Alabama