Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – There is an adjustment period for any high school athlete making the transition to varsity competition.

The freshman season for Kahlor Fleck was a little more than that.

“It was a big transition,” Fleck said. “It was my first year at Solon so it was really an eye-opening year.”

In her second track season at Solon it is Fleck that has been opening eyes.

Fleck has added better than two feet to her top long jump mark from a year ago while qualifying for the Drake Relays for the first time.

Her top leap of 17-5 ranks 14th in the state, is third best in Class 3A this season and is more than a full two feet further than her best mark last season as a freshman.

“She has really come along,” Solon coach Brent Sands said. “There are several girls that are all of a sudden emerging so something is working and we are trying to take advantage.”

Fleck labeled her freshman season a success.

She said she was comfortable in her first year at a new school after moving from Mount Vernon and enjoyed her teammates.

For the most part Fleck was even happy with her performances including a top jump of 15-2 in the long jump.

It took just three meets this season for Fleck to take her performance to another level.

“I’ve just come more to compete this year,” Fleck said. “I was happy with how last year went but this season I’ve just had a different attitude and come ready to compete.”
In the third meet of the season Fleck notched a career-best mark of 17-5 at Brady Street Stadium in Davenport.

That jump is just 2.5 inches off the top mark in Class 3A this season and

“I jumped right after the 400 and my coach just said ‘look up and jump as high as you can’,” Fleck said. “I made them recheck my jump to make sure that’s what I actually got.”

Fleck hasn’t been a one-jump wonder this season.

She has been around the 17-foot mark all season and won the long jump at the Denny Gruber Relays at Solon last Tuesday with a mark of 16-11.

“She has been putting some more work in,” Sands said. “She works hard and we’ve been a little bit smarter about workouts and trying to give her some breaks here and there.”

Fleck has also improved on the track.

At the Denny Gruber Relays she was runner-up in the 100 in 13.29 and ran on the Solon 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams that each finished runner-up.  

Fleck has also run the 400 this season making her one of many versatile athletes on a Solon team that figures to contend well in the Class 3A team race at the state meet next month.

“She is running very well, her 400 times have been really good,” Sands said. “She put herself in a position to do a lot of different things. We can run her anywhere from the 100 to the 400.”