Spartans, Bilskie Keep Building With Team Title at Tipton Invitational
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
TIPTON – When you are building you have to start with a base. One brick at a time.
That’s how Solon senior Tyler Bilskie did it.
The rebuilding project Bilskie and his Solon cross country teammates took on this fall is far from finished but the Spartans are already showing impressive renovations.
Led by a career-best sixth-place finish from Bilskie Class 2A seventh-ranked Solon continued its strong start to the season by winning the team title at the 47th Annual Tipton Invitational on Tuesday at a windy and wet Tipton City Park.
“This summer we got to a really good training plan, we really killed it, we had a lot of goals, goals were really important this season and it’s really paying off now,” Bilskie said. “We are seeing some massive time drops.”
Less than a week after finishing one point behind Tipton at the Bob Brown Classic in Iowa City Solon put three runners in the top 10 to finished six points clear of the host Tigers for the team title on Tuesday.
Bilskie was sixth, junior Gabe Hinman was seventh and freshman Brick Kabela was 10th as Solon finished with 54 points.
Class 2A fourth-ranked Tipton was second with 60 followed by Bellevue with 122 and Cascade with 137. Regina was ninth with 194 points.
“It has been so fun to see what they are doing,” Solon coach Emy Williams said. “Our top runners are two minutes faster than they were last year and they are all pushing each other.”
The win on Tuesday was another in a series of strong performances in which Solon has showed its progress early this season.
Solon was ninth at the Bob Brown Invite last season but moved up to fourth place at the event last week.
The Spartans were fourth at the Tipton meet a year ago before climbing atop the boys standings on Tuesday.
“It’s been years since we’ve won a meet,” Bilskie said. “We went from last year going consistently seventh place to winning a meet. It’s amazing.”
There are several factors to point to in the Spartans’ rebuild.
The addition of talented freshman Kabela and Michael Yeomans who placed 15th on Tuesday have solidified a Solon lineup that returned Bilskie, fellow senior Ben DeValk and two-time state qualifier Gabe Hinman.
“Our freshman on varsity they have done a really good job, they have found their paces really well and they are training very well,” Bilskie said. “They are very responsible for young runners.”
However, the building begins with Bilskie and fellow senior DeValk.
It started all the way back in November as the two seniors began gearing up for track season. When track season was cancelled due to COVID-19 Bilskie and DeValk just kept training.
“Ben and Tyler have bene working hard since November really wanting to have a great track senior and after losing the track season they just continued that work through the summer,” Williams said. “They have seen what it takes to be a great runner and they have worked really hard so it’s exciting to see them doing so well.”
The building for Bilskie began with small goals.
A goal pace on a winter run or a mileage goal over the summer.
Two weeks into his senior season Bilskie has seen the goals skyrocket.
“It started in the offseason with small goals,” Bilskie said. “Now it is turning into ‘we can win this meet, let’s go out and win it’. That’s not something I’d even think last year. We have those goal sheets and I’m writing top 15 or top 10 and I wasn’t even close to that last year. These big changes have just been amazing.”
Bilskie was 38th at the Tipton meet last season in a time of 20:28.
On Tuesday he clocked a 16:45.6 while placing sixth. Hinman was seventh in 16:53 while Kabela was 10th in 17:16.8.
“I don’t think I’d ever finished in the top 20 before this, so it felt awesome,” Bilskie said. “I had a really strong first mile, I was a little weaker the third mile but it was just amazing.”
Tipton Invitational
At Tipton City Park
Team scores – 1. Solon 54; 2. Tipton 60; 3. Bellevue 122; 4. Cascade 137; 5. Anamosa 176; 6. Northeast 178; 7. Camanche 190; 8. Calamus-Wheatland 192; 9. Regina 194; 10. Wilton 283; 11. Central DeWitt 294; 12. Wapello 304; 13. Louisa-Muscatine 314; 14. Durant 367; 15. Midland 398; 16. North Cedar 429
Individual leaders – 1. Brady Griebel (BEL) 15:32.8; 2. Caleb Shumaker 15:33; 3. Chase Knoche (CW) 16:01.7; 4. Dylan Darsidan (CAM) 16:18.9; 5. Cody Bohlmann (TIP) 16:31.8; 6. Tyler Bilskie (SOL) 16:45.6; 7. Gabe Hinman (SOL) 16:53; 8. Ty Nichols (TIP) 16:58.8; 9. Payton Griebel (BEL) 17:08.2; 10. Brick Kabela (SOL) 17:16.8
Solon (54) – 6. Tyler Bilskie 16:45.6; 7. Gabe Hinman 16:53; 10. Brick Kabela 17:16.8; 15. Michael Yeomans 17:34.8; 16. Ben DeValk 17:42.9; 29. Noelan Garbes 18:13.6; 35. Gabe Yetley 18:34.2
Regina (194) – 12. Dan Maley 17:27.2; 26. Joe Maley 18:08; 42. Adam Boblenz 19:00.2; 52. Riordan Smith 19:15.4; 62. Jacob Barnett 20:01.2; 69. Joe Polyak 20:16.7; 76. Nicholas Abusada 20:44.6
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