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Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – There are ways to practice the shot put indoors and plenty of inside drills to work on the discus.

This spring Tyler Linderbaum feels like he has seen just about everyone one of them.

“Being inside all the time it kind of gets old,” Linderbaum said. “We just wanted to get outside.”  

Confined to gym workouts for much of the spring due to inclement weather Linderbaum and his Solon teammates made the most of their opportunity to compete outside on Tuesday.

Linderbaum won the shot put and posted a season-best toss to finish third in the discus as Solon had a pair of top four finishers in each of the throwing events at its own Denny Gruber Relays at sunny Spartan Stadium.

Junior Coal Flansburg finished runner-up in the discus and Rocky Lensing was fourth in the shot put to help Solon to a third-place team finish with 97 points.

All three of the Solon throwers to earn top four finishes had season-best performances.

Flansburg bettered his previous best toss by more than 17 feet with a runner-up throw of 158-7 while Linderbaum’s toss of 153-11 was nearly 20 feet better than his previous best.

Linderbaum won the shot put title with a mark of 55-2 ½, a little more than three feet of his best of the season.

“I’m more happy with where I am at with discus right now just because we haven’t thrown outside really at all with discus,” Linderbaum said. “You can do some shot in the gym but where I am at with discus and my performance today I am happy with it.”

Solon won four events, getting individual titles from seniors Luke Ira and Ben Krutzfeldt and adding a first-place finish in the shuttle hurdle relay.

Ira continued a strong start to the season by cruising to the title in the 110 hurdles in a time of 15.16.

His winning time on Tuesday was a few tenths off his best time this season of 14.96 and better than a full second in faster than runner-up Charlie Dudley of Vinton-Shellsburg.

“I was in the 14s last meet and I only did that last year at districts and state so I’ve improved,” Ira said. “This year we are taking every meet as our last and we are trying to go all out.”

Ira joined Thomas Brandt, Ryan Geistkemper and AJ Coons in winning the shuttle hurdle relay in 1:03.02.

He also anchored the Spartans 4×100 relay team to a runner-up finish in 44.99.

“It felt good winning those two events,” Ira said. “Those are kind of the main things that I’ve been doing for the last four years so it meant a lot to win those.”

Krutzfeldt added a title in the 400 in 55.32 in his first ever attempt at the event.

The senior ran the 400 meter leg on the Spartans third-place Sprint medley relay team.

“I had never run the open 400 before tonight, that was my first time running it,” Krutzfeldt said. “That was a cool feeling and a great opportunity.”

Regina picked up a pair of individual titles on its way to a sixth-place team finish with 52 points.

Jayden Kies claimed the 100 in 11.3 and Ryan Bonthius won the 800 in 2:05.71.

Bonthius finished more than two seconds in front of runner-up Cole Tharp of Vinton-Shellsburg.

“He just has been grinding and I know that he is due for a big race and I think it would have been tonight if he would have had some guys up to pull him a little bit,” Regina coach Chris Murdock said. “He’s where he needs to be.”

Luke Stein finished third in the shot put with a mark of 50-5 ½ and fourth in the discus with a toss of 153-0, both his best performances of the season.

His toss in the discus was more than 18 feet better than his previous best from this season.

“He has worked so hard all offseason for the past couple of years and it just seems like this year it’s finally all coming to fruition for him,” Murdock said. “We are expecting big things from him and he’s lived up to those expectations every step of the way.”

Denny Gruber Relays

At Solon

Boys Results

Team scores – 1. Marion 108; 2. Mount Vernon 104; 3. Solon 97; 4. Vinton-Shellsburg 93; 5. Dyersville Beckman 60; 6. Regina 52; 7. North Cedar 50; 8. Davenport Assumption 24.

Individual Results

(Winners; Area Placewinners)

100 – 1. Jayden Kies (ICR) 11.3; 5. Theo Kolie (ICR) 12.01; 6. Eddie Richey (SOL) 12.07.

200 – 1. Blair Brooks (MAR) 23.4; 5. Jackson Pipolo (SOL) 24.9.

400 – 1. Ben Krutzfeldt (SOL) 55.32; 3. Jack Goedken (ICR) 56.75.

800 – 1. Ryan Bonthius (ICR) 2:05.71.

1,600 – 1. Jeremy Fopma (MAR) 4:29.29; 6. Nathan Meyer (ICR) 4:58.31.

3,200 – 1. Caden Eskelsen (MV) 10:50.73; 2. Ethan Kober (SOL) 11:07.9.

110 hurdles – 1. Luke Ira (SOL) 15.16.

400 hurdles – 1. Mark Brown (BD) 56.29; 5. Thomas Brandt (SOL) 1:03.26.

Sprint medley relay – 1. Dyersville Beckman 1:36.2; 3. Solon (Kendrick Harris, Spencer Wegmann, Jackson Pipolo, Ben Krutzfeldt) 1:40.01; 6. Regina (Jack Goedken, Jack Keating, Theo Kolie, Ryan Bonthius) 1:43.56.

Distance medley relay – 1. Mount Vernon 3:51.99; 3. Regina (Jack Meyer, Jack Keating, Jack Goedken, Nathan Meyer) 4:07.44; 4. Solon (Seamus Poynton, Mason Stahle, Dillon Hoit, Clay Gerdin) 4:09.67.

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Solon (Thomas Brandt, Ryan Geistkemper, AJ Coons, Luke Ira) 1:03.02;

4×100 – 1. Dyersville Beckman 44.72; 2. Solon (Kendrick Harris, Adam Bock, Spencer Wegmann, Luke Ira) 44.99.

4×200 – 1. Dyersville Beckman 1:31.99; 5. Regina (Xavian Iben, Neal Eckhoff, Joe Hein, Jayden Kies) 1:36.54.

4×400 – 1. Dyersville Beckman 3:31.48; 5. Solon (Brayton Bair, Brad Yeomans, Brayden Rickertson, Jack Bell) 3:52.05.

4×800 – 1. Mount Vernon 8:22.68; 7. Solon (Brayton Bair, Tyler Bilskie, Ben DeValk, Brad Yeomans) 9:38.82.

Long jump – 1. Blair Brooks (MAR) 22-11; 4. Neal Eckhoff (ICR) 19-6.

High jump – 1. Blair Brooks (MAR) 6-2; 4. Colton Hoffman (SOL) 5-8

Shot put – 1. Tyler Linderbaum (SOL) 55-2 ½; 3. Luke Stein (ICR) 50-5 ½; 4. Rocky Lensing (SOL) 49-8 ¼.

Discus – 1. Matt Vislisel (MV) 164-11; 2. Coal Flansburg (SOL) 158-7; 3. Tyler Linderbaum (SOL) 153-11; 4. Luke Stein (ICR) 153-0.