Kabela Leads Solon With Runner-up Finish at Tipton Invitational
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
TIPTON – Brick Kabela is a two-time state qualifier and a returning state medalist.
For the first time last summer Kabela was a varsity baseball player which cut into the summer training time for the Solon junior.
While Kabela might not quite be in tip-top shape just yet coming off his busy offseason he showed on Tuesday at the 49th Annual Tipton Invitational he is still going to be a front of the pack runner as the season wears on.
Kabela finished runner-up to Regina junior Aiden O’Neil in a time of 17:17 to help Class 3A No. 15 to a third-place team finish at the 13-team meet at Tipton City Park.
“I didn’t have a ton of volume this summer with playing baseball and right now I am just training through meets,” Kabela said. “The last three days I have worked my butt off so my legs are dead and so today I don’t know about my time but my placing was great. It shows me if I can do that with tired legs I can do great things with fresh legs.”
Over the past several season Kabela has shown he can compete with the best in the state.
He was 26th at the 3A state meet and jumped to 14th last season to claim his first state medal.
An injury slowed Kabela during track season and he spent the summer pitching for the Solon baseball team.
The combination of those two left Kabela behind his previous pace entering the cross country season but it hasn’t caused him to panic.
“You have to trust the process,” Kabela said. “I’d much rather run a slower time now and be all-state again in October. That’s my thought process. Even if I feel like I’m not getting better with my times that I’m working hard and it’s all going to pay off.”
Kabela was strong on Tuesday finishing more than 16 seconds in front of third-place Ty Nichols of Tipton.
“My strategy going in was to go out as fast as I can with that lead pack and see where it takes me and it went pretty well,” Kabela said. “I had a little extra on that down hill at about two and a quarter. I had a little more in the tank than I thought.”
The runner-up finish from Kabela helped Solon to a third-place finish with 80 points.
Class 2A top-ranked Tipton won the team title with 42 points while 1A second-ranked Regina was runner-up with 73.
O’Neil led a trio of Regina runners in the top-15 winning the individual title in a time of 17:04.
Dan Maley was eighth in 18:08 and Joe Maley was 15th in 18:49 for the Regals.
Mike Yeomans finished fifth for Solon in 17:57.
“I love to race against a good teams and good runners,” Kabela said. “It’s no fun running by yourself so if we can get a good pack together that’s great. It’s harder but it’s nice to have guys to run with.”
Tipton Invitational
At Tipton City Park
Team scores – 1. Tipton 42; 2. Regina 73; 3. Solon 80; 4. Central DeWitt 87; 5. Anamosa 108; 6. Cascade 138; 7. Northeast 173; 8. Calamus-Wheatland 247; 9. Wilton 269; 10. Louisa-Muscatine 291; 11. Camanche 300; 12. Durant 343; 13. Wapello 381
Individual leaders – 1. Aiden O’Neil (ICR) 17:04; 2. Brick Kabela (SOL) 17:17; 3. Ty Nichols (TIP) 17:33; 4. Clay Bohlmann (TIP) 17:34; 5. Mike Yeomans (SOL) 17:57; 6. Ben Zimmer (CD) 17:59; 7. Maxson Fogg (TIP) 18:02; 8. Dan Maley (ICR) 18:08; 9. Caleb Olson (CD) 18:10; 10. Caleb Bohlmann (TIP) 18:15; 11. Adam Knepper (CAS) 18;15; 12. Aiden Onken (Bellevue) 18:31; 13. Shea Keister (ANA) 18:35; 14. Seth Countryman (ANA) 18:37; 15. Joe Maley (ICR) 18:49
Solon (80) – 2. Brick Kabela 17:17; 5. Mike Yeomans 17:57; 15. Lawsin Sinwell 18:53; 27. Grant Bumsted 19:32; 31. Collin Bumsted 19:46; 48. Ben Duckett 20:36; 83. Evan Burg 31:13
Regina (73) – 1. Aiden O’Neil 17:04; 8. Dan Maley 18:08; 14. Joe Maley 18:49; 22. Riordan Smith 19:14; 28. Henry Bottorf 19:32; 36. Sam Welter 20:07; 43. Colin Olney 20:26
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