Two years ago Solon’s senior class finished a massive rewrite of Solon’s track and field record book capping off the 2024 season with a 5th place Class 3A finish at the State Track Meet in Des Moines. The trio of thrower Ben Kampman, middle distance runner Mike Yeomans and distance runner Brick Kabela graduated with eight Spartan track records.
This year a deep freshman class, led by Macklin (Mac) Svalstad, has already started another rewrite of the record book.
“This year’s freshmen really set a tone that they can compete on the big stage. The future is extremely bright for our program,” head coach Mark Sovers proclaimed.
Svalstad has already claimed school records for the 400 meters (49.07) and 800 meters (1:52.80), along with the distance medley and 4×400 meter relays.
Despite running in Svalstad’s shadow all season, Jaimyn Bevans put together one of the best rookie campaigns ever witnessed by Sovers.
“We knew he had potential just based on what he’d done in junior high. What I enjoyed though was seeing him compete in every workout at practice. He’s definitely a speedy, competitive kid.”
Bevans was third in the entire state (all classes) among freshmen this year with his 2:00.98 800 meters trailing only Svalstad and fellow WaMaC freshman Ben Brinkman of Mount Vernon. Bevans qualified for the state meet in three events anchoring Solon’s distance medley team at the state qualifier (Svalstad took over the anchor spot and led the Spartans to gold at the state meet) and qualifying in the 800 meters and 4×800 relay.
Easton Shipley was another freshman breakout, qualifying for the state meet. Shipley had a PR high jump of 6-2 this year and placed 10th at state jumping 6-1. Shipley also participated on Solon’s state qualifying shuttle hurdle team as the anchor runner and dabbled in the 400 hurdles during the regular season doing surprisingly well for a rookie running a minute flat.
“Easton has lots of skills, the sky’s the limit for him. He’s another kid that works extremely hard and he’s very coachable in whatever event he takes on,” said Sovers.
New to Solon this year was Channing Wildrick. Wildrick is a pure sprinter and ran at state on Solon’s 4×200 meter relay. He had a PR of 23.00 in the open 200 meters this season and was 13th in the state among freshman. Greyson Burg, Brooks Kabela, and Colton Kolar are also among the seven Spartan freshman letter winners.
Burg clocked a season best 53.37 in the 400 meters, a top 30 time among Iowa freshman. Meanwhile Kabela won the 3200 at North Cedar and again at the JV WaMaC meet with a PR 10:55 clocking. Kolar ran his first season of cross country in the fall to gain strength for track season and contributed 200 and 400 meter legs on relays this season. He could be another stout 400/800 meter runner in the future for the Spartans.
But back to Svalstad.
With Quentin Nauman of Western Dubuque and Canaan Dunham of Pella graduating and moving on to Division 1 track, Svalstad is poised to be the next star in Class 3A and possibly the entire state. He finished right behind the pair in the 800 meters, running the fastest time ever by an Iowa freshman.
“What I like about Mac is he’s always where his feet are, always attacking the moment at hand, getting the best out of himself, not looking ahead to something else,” Sovers commented.
Solon’s last state boy’s track title happened in 2014. The next one may be just around the corner if these freshman have anything to say about it.