Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

MOUNT PLEASANT – A few days before the WAMAC Conference meet the seniors on the Solon track team had something of a revelation.

“Two days before the conference meet it was an eye opener for us that we were almost done with the season and we knew we had to do something,” Solon senior Jeremy Bachus said. “We’d been a little quiet all year and before conference we said let’s show people what we are.”

The Spartans have been anything quiet over the last week.

Solon started making noise last week when it won the WAMAC Conference title by more than 45 points.

The noise got even louder on Thursday.

Solon won five events and qualified 15 events for the state meet on its way to winning the Class 3A state qualifying meet at Mapleleaf Athletic Complex in Mount Pleasant.

“We knew last week we had to make some noise and that’s what we’ve done,” Bachus said. “This state qualifier really showed us that we are some of the best out there and we are looking forward to next week.”

Four different individuals won titles for the Spartans on Thursday as Solon racked up 180 points and finished 50 points clear of runner-up Washington.

Blake Timmons won the 200 and Bachus won the 400 for Solon which also got titles from Brick Kabela in the 3,200 and Adam Smith in the discus.

The Spartans had top-two automatic qualifying finishes in 10 different individual events, won the 4×400 relay and were runner-up in three other relays.

“Once we entered championship season right after the Drake Relays we started to see a different team,” Solon coach Mark Sovers said. “I think you can see some of the hard work they put in paying off. They were tired, we started backing off a little bit and we started getting fresher and their confidence came back and the WAMAC was a big confidence builder for us.”

A week after getting some of its confidence back with a win at the WAMAC meet Solon showed on Thursday what it is capable of.

“We knew coming into this year we had a complete team and we could compete with anyone,” Timmons said. “It would just be on us if we came to work every single day and got one percent better every day.”

Solon got off to a strong start on Thursday thanks to its field events.

Smith and junior Ben Kampman finished first and second in the discus and Smith was runner-up in the shot put.

Caleb Bock added a runner-up finish in the long jump and Oaken Foster was runner-up in the high jump as Solon qualified five entries in the four field events for the 3A state meet that opens May 18 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

“We knew that coming into this year we had a lot of depth, especially at our field events they really jump started us,” Timmons said. “We talk about our field events being the first punch at each meet and they’ve been great recently.”
On the track it was balance that carried the day for the Spartans.

Kabela won the 3,200 and was runner-up in the 1,600 while Michael Yeomans was runner-up in the 800 and Keenan Kruse was runner-up in the 400 hurdles in a career-best time of 56.98.

“One of things I was really proud of was some of the individual performances from a Keenan Kruse or a Brick Kabela who work so hard and invest so much in themselves,” Sovers said. “They finally get to go experience what they have been working for.”

Solon finished runner-up in the 4×200, sprint medley and distance medley relays.

The 4×200 team of Brayden Moore, Rhett Mesch, Austin Knight and Timmons was runner-up to West Burlington in 1:31.05 and the distance medley team of Milo Ashbacker, Grant Knipper, Grant Bumsted and Kabela was runner-up in 3:43.59.

Solon’s sprint medley team of Moore, Timmons, Bachus and Knight finished second in 1:36.19.

The Spartans closed the impressive performance with a win the 4×400 as Bachus, Mesch, Yeomans and Knipper won in 3:27.06.

“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to be the deepest most complimentary team that we could build, that was the goal from day one,” Sovers said. “From top to bottom we wanted to utilize the depth that we had.

Class 3A State Qualifier #6

At Mapleleaf Athletic Complex

Team scores – 1. Solon 180; 2. Washington 130; 3. Clear Creek Amana 117; 4. Mount Pleasant 91; 5. Fort Madison 85; 6. West Burlington 73; 7. Fairfield 38; 8. Keokuk 15

Automatic state qualifiers; area placers

100 – 1. Jack Riley (WB) 10.88; 2. Elijah Morrs (WAS) 11.01; 7. Nash Kotar (SOL) 11.88; 8. Brett White (SOL) 11.96

200 – 1. Blake Timmons (SOL) 22.69; 2. Nik Fullenkamp (FM) 23.55; 3. Joey Dains (CCA) 23.71; 4. Cole Carney (SOL) 24.16; 5. Brayden Frank (CCA) 24.22

400 – 1. Jeremy Bachus (SOL) 49.81; 2. Alec Ulin (WAS) 51.08; 6. Cale Berry (CCA) 55.03; 7. Tyler Bell (SOL) 55.3; 8. Jack Colvin (CCA) 56.44

800 – 1. Logan McDole (WAS) 2:04.64; 2. Michael Yeomans (SOL) 2:04.65; 3. Brock Hilsman (CCA) 2:04.89; 6. Cameron Kimm (CCA) 2:12.66

1,600 – 1. Micah Rees (WAS) 4:38.54; 2. Brick Kabela (SOL) 4:45.29; 4. Peyton Stadler (CCA) 4:50.04; 6. Noah Yost (CCA) 4:52.37; 7. Spencer Michels (SOL) 4:56

3,200 – 1. Brick Kabela (SOL) 10:37.63; 2. Micah Rees (WAS) 10:39.73; 3. Noah Yost (CCA) 10:42.91; 5. Peyton Stadler (CCA) 10:50.7; 6. Colin Bumsted (SOL) 11:15.26

110 hurdles – 1. Will Davidson (MP) 14.48; 2. Aren Schlemme (CCA) 15.53; 3. Andrew Schlemme (CCA) 15.55; 6. Nash Kotar (SOL) 15.99; 8. Cole Carney (SOL) 16.63

400 hurdles – 1. Will Davidson (MP) 54.12; 2. Keenan Kruse (SOL) 56.98; 4. Thomas Stiltner (CCA) 58.32; 6. Charlie Brandt (SOL) 1:01.28

4×100 – 1. West Burlington 42.79; 2. Fort Madison 43.64; 3. Solon (Brett White, Brayden Moore, Milo Ashbacker, Blake Timmons) 44.07; 4. Clear Creek Amana (Aren Schlemme, Owen Rosenberg, Nick Johnson, Eston McAlpin) 44.38

4×200 – 1. West Burlington 1:29.7; 2. Solon (Brayden Moore, Rhett Mesch, Austin Knight, Blake Timmons) 1:31.05; 3. Clear Creek Amana (Andrew Schlemme, Owen Rosenberg, Nick Johnson, Brayden Frank) 1:32.2

4×400 – 1. Solon (Rhett Mesch, Michael Yeomans, Grant Knipper, Jeremy Bachus) 3:27.06; 2. Washington 3:28.12; 4. Clear Creek Amana (Cash Jensen, Jamie Hayes, Cameron Kimm, Isaac Sorensen) 3:35.33

4×800 – 1. Clear Creek Amana (Brock Hilsman, Cash Jensen, Jamie Hayes, Isaac Sorensen) 8:13.08; 2. Mount Pleasant 8:16.85; 4. Solon (Michael Yeomans, Maddox Shipley, Wyatt Applegarth, Grant Bumsted) 8:22.43

Sprint medley – 1. Washington 1:35.12; 2. Solon (Brayden Moore, Blake Timmons, Jeremy Bachus, Austin Knight) 1:36.19; 5. Clear Creek Amana (Nick Johnson, Andrew Schlemme, Owen Rosenberg, Cash Jensen) 1:38.79

Distance medley – 1. Clear Creek Amana 3:40.88; 2. Solon (Milo Ashbacker, Grant Knipper, Grant Bumsted, Brick Kabela) 3:43.59

Shuttle hurdle – 1. Mount Pleasant 1:00.59; 2. Fort Madison 1:01.57; 3. Solon (Charlie Brandt, Cole Carney, Ben Duckett, Nash Kotar) 1:01.92; 4. Clear Creek Amana (Aren Schlemme, Luke Higdon, Owen Rosenberg, Andrew Schlemme) 1:03.72

Discus – 1. Adam Smith (SOL) 160-9; 2. Ben Kampman (SOL) 159-4; 8. Landon Prince (CCA) 129-2

Shot put – 1. Brayden Hartman (WAS) 55-1 ½; 2. Adam Smith (SOL) 53-2; 4. Marcus Richard (SOL) 47-10; 5. Vinnie Keller (CCA) 43-4; 7. Brody Clubb (CCA) 42-2

Long jump – 1. Avin Truong (MP) 22-8 ½; 2. Caleb Bock (SOL) 21-5; 3. Oaken Foster (SOL) 21-3 ½

High jump – 1. Ryan Giberson (FAI) 6-3; 2. Oaken Foster (SOL) 6-0; 4. Josh Loren (CCA) 5-10

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