Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – The Solon state qualifying meet stat line tells quite a story.

Seven automatic state qualifiers, 134 points, six runner-up finishes, one individual champion, one team title, one cartwheel and lots and lots of smiles.

“I don’t know what to say, it’s amazing,” Solon senior Brayden Rickertsen said. “This means a lot to us, to all of us. I’m just so happy for our team.”

Solon punctuated a resurgent season by holding off Marion to claim its first district title since 2015 and head coach Mark Sovers provided the final touch with a celebratory cartwheel at the Class 3A state qualifier at Spartan Stadium in Solon.

The Spartans finished with 134 points, two more than runner-up Marion to secure the team title one week after finishing 14 points behind Marion at the WAMAC Conference meet.

“All year long we’ve never talked about winning a meet,” Sovers said. “We’ve always enjoyed the depth that we’ve had and just developed guys throughout our lineup and we’ve always talked about having a complementary lineup from top to bottom and that was our goal throughout the year. That and to be present in whatever moment we are in and then things like this will happen. It’s been awesome with these guys.”

Solon won just one event on Thursday but had six runner-up finishes while securing seven automatic qualifiers for the state meet that opens on May 20 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

The full list of state qualifiers will be set on Friday.

Solon also had six third-place performances on Thursday and was fourth in four more events.

“That’s what we prided ourselves on is it has never been about one event for us or one athlete or two athletes,” Sovers said. “It’s about everybody becoming the best version of who they are and they contributing with whatever skills and talents they have in our lineup and these guys have done that this year and on days like this it shines through.”

In his lone individual event of the evening Rickertsen provided the Spartans with their only title winning the 400 in 51.23.

After just missing a title in the 400 at the WAMAC meet last week Rickertsen pulled away from the field and finished more than two seconds in front of teammate Jeremy Bachus who was second in 53.34.

“In the open 400 to get my title at the last meet of my senior season that means so much to me,” Rickertsen said. “My friend Jeremy Bachus he came in right after me, I was so happy for him. It was just a great team win.”

Rickertsen also ran on the Solon sprint medley and 4×400 relay teams that finished runner-up to secure spots at the state meet.

The Solon 4×400 team of Rickertsen, Blake Timmons, Bo Janssen and Bachus secured the team title with a runner-up finish in the 4×400 in a time of 3:30.37.

“It’s been a goal since freshman year to win this and before this year we’ve had no numbers and this year we got a tweet from the football coach that said ‘lets get out for track this year and show the WAMAC what we can do’,” Rickertsen said. “It’s been a process and it’s been so much fun.”

Adam Smith was runner-up in the discus with a career-best toss of 142-5 while senior Ben DeValk secured an auto bid to state with a runner-up finish in the 1,600 in a time of 4:37.22.

DeValk added a third-place finish in the 800.

The Solon shuttle hurdle team of Jackson Ryan, Brady Mullen, Nash Kottar and Brady Jeworrek earned a spot at state with a runner-up finish in 1:02.89.

“That is one thing that has separated these guys from a lot of different people that I have been around is they have been relationship-first,” Sovers said. “They get along with each other, and we can talk about being truly invested in your teammates’ success if you are going to experience success yourself but these guys lived it out and that’s what I’m the most proud of these guys about.”

Class 3A State Qualifier

At Spartan Stadium in Solon

Team scores – 1. Solon 134; 2. Marion 132; 3. Cedar Rapids Xavier 119.5; 4. Monticello 106; 5. Dubuque Wahlert 80; 6. Central DeWitt 71; 7. Mount Vernon 54; 8. Maquoketa 38.5

State qualifiers; Area placers

Long jump – 1. Coleton Beasler-Weber (CRX) 20-4; 2. Nick Mautino (CRX) 20-2; 5. Brett White (SOL) 19-5 ½; 6. Parker Pentico (SOL) 19-4

High jump – 1. Jacques D’Almeida (CRX) 6-3; 2. Caden Ungs (MON) 6-2; 3. Colton Hoffman (SOL) 6-1; 6. Oaken Foster (SOL) 5-8

Discus – 1. Duke Faley (DW) 166-10; 2. Adam Smith (SOL) 142-5; 3. Zach Harp (SOL) 142-1

Shot put – 1. Garret Wagner (MAR) 56-6 ¾; 2. Brayden Cleeton (MON) 48-7; 4. Zach Harp (SOL) 46-11 ¼

100 – 1. Ryan Brosius (DW) 11.21; 2. Alex Mota (MAR) 11.23; 3. Colton Hoffman (SOL) 11.27; 7. Danny Knezevich (SOL) 11.9

200 – 1. Lucas Burmeister (CD) 22.66; 2. Alex Mota (MAR) 22.76; 7. Blake Timmons (SOL) 23.51

400 – 1. Brayden Rickertsen (SOL) 51.23; 2. Jeremy Bachus (SOL) 53.34

800 – 1. Jasper Nietert (MON) 2:02.96; 2. Carter Kurt (MON) 2:03.65; 3. Ben DeValk (SOL) 2:05.29

1,600 – 1. Shane Erb (MAR) 4:33.89; 2. Ben DeValk (SOL) 4:37.22

3,200 – 1. Shane Erb (MAR) 9:40.92; 2. Jedidiah Osgood (MAR) 10:03.91; 7. Brick Kabela (SOL) 10:57.66

110 hurdles – 1. Caden Ungs (MON) 15.58; 2. Dae Quan Johnson (MAR) 15.84; 3. Brady Mullen (SOL) 15.95; 5. Brady Jeworrek (SOL) 16.27

400 hurdles – 1. Thomas McAllister (MAR) 56.95; 2. Tristan Rheingans (CD) 58.51

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Cedar Rapids Xavier 1:02.79; 2. Solon (Jackson Ryan, Brady Mullen, Nash Kottar, Brady Jeworrek) 1:02.89

Sprint medley relay – 1. Central DeWitt 1:34.83; 2. Solon (Trin Eidahl, Colton Hoffman, Brayden Rickertsen, Blake Timmons) 1:35.71

Distance medley relay – 1. Monticello 3:43.32; 2. Mount Vernon 3:43.97; 3. Solon (Michael Pipolo, Grant Gerdin, Bo Janssen, Tyler Bilskie) 3:45.67

4×100 relay – 1. Marion 43.63; 2. Dubuque Wahlert 43.74; 4. Solon (Trin Eidahl, Jacob Timmons, Danny Knezevich, Brady Jeworrek) 45.12

4×200 relay – 1. Dubuque Wahlert 1:30.38; 2. Cedar Rapids Xavier 1:31.56; 4. Solon (Trin Eidahl, Blake Timmons, Jacob Timmons, Colton Hoffman) 1:32.88

4×400 relay – 1. Mount Vernon 3:30.05; 2. Solon (Blake Timmons, Brayden Rickertsen, Bo Janssen, Jeremy Bachus) 3:30.37

4×800 relay – 1. Monticello 8:13.67; 2. Mount Vernon 8:14.09; 4. Solon (Ben DeValk, Ty Becicka, Michael Yeomans, Tyler Bilskie) 8:23.2

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