East Alton-Wood River boys, MELHS girls capture Prairie State Conference track and field crowns

May 3, 2016 8:50 AM May 3, 2016 11:00 AM

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WOOD RIVER – Monday's cool, overcast conditions didn't play a factor into the outcome of the Prairie State Conference's boys and girls track and field championship meet at East Alton-Wood River's Memorial Stadium.

The East Alton-Wood River boys and Metro East Lutheran girls had performances, though, that set the tone for the day's outcomes as MEL's Aurora Herbert won both throws and sprinters finished 1-2 in both the 100 and 200 meters and took the sprint relays (4x100 and 4x200 meters) en route to the girls title, scoring 115 points to win the crown; Mount Olive was second at 91, the Oilers third at 69, Bunker Hill fourth at 50 and Marquette Catholic fifth at 33.

On the boys side, the Oilers swept the relays and got wins in the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs from Brenden Springman as EAWR won their third straight PSC championship with 126 points, with the Knights taking second at 81 points; the Minutemen were third at 66, Wildcats fourth at 39 and Explorers fifth at 26.

“The girls did an outstanding job,” said Oiler coach Russ Colona. “We had only 11 girls and they worked their tails off; we're real proud of them. The guys ran real hard and we got a lot of personal records today; this is our third year in a row winning this and that's one of our goals to do that. Great job from these guys.

“We're young; we had only four seniors. These guys work hard for me; it was a team effort today. We won all five relays, everyone on the team scored a point today.”

EAWR's Haley Kerpan had a very good day on the girls side, winning the 400, 1,600 and 3,200 runs and being a part of the 4x400 relay team that took third. “It's not bad for a distance runner,” Kerpan said of Monday's cool conditions. “You don't like it overheated; I thought it was good.”

Kerpan will be graduating in a few weeks and said of the experience of running for the Oilers, “I think this has been the best team I've ever run with. Everyone works together; we're kind of like a family.”

“I'm pretty proud of them (the boys and girls teams); they all performed pretty well today,” said Knight coach David Modenhauer. “We started off strong (in the girls competition); we had a lot of great field events, placing in every single field event and we took first, second or third. We had a really strong start with that, which is fantastic.

“As usual, the sprinters did a great job; we got (Jania Hardaway) and Ellen (Schulte) who did a great job in the 100 and 200, Kathryn Butler does a fantastic job in the hurdles and our relays did very well. It was great to our distance runner, Paulina Fuhrmann – this was her first meet back (coming off a knee injury), so it was great to have her back.”

Here are the results from EAWR, MEL and Marquette on the day:

BOYS

SHOT PUT: Luke Sengele, MEL, second (37-7.5); Caleb Osborne, EAWR, fourth (34-8); Brandon Yarborough, EAWR, fifth (33-3); Kai Luckert, MEL, sixth (34-8)

DISCUS THROW: Luke Sengele, MEL, first (109-9); Hunter O'Brien, EAWR, second (107-7); Brandon Yarborough, EAWR, fourth (90-2); Kai Luckert, MEL, fifth (89-5)

LONG JUMP: Tommy DeClue, Marquette, third (19-0); Dalton Miller, EAWR, fourth (18-4.5); Thadeous Weaver, EAWR, sixth (17-0)

TRIPLE JUMP: Elijah Culbert, MEL, first (37-11); Hunter O'Brien, EAWR, third (35-3.5); Christian Brown, MEL, fourth (32-1); Ryne White, EAWR, sixth (30-0.75)

HIGH JUMP: Christian Brown, MEL, fourth (5-2); Phil Tierney and Logan Brawley, EAWR, T-fifth (5-0)

4X800 RELAY: EAWR, first (10:14.4); MEL, second (11:13.6)

4X100 RELAY: EAWR, first (46.6); Marquette, second (47.3); MEL, third (51.1)

3,200 METERS: Brenden Springman, EAWR, first (11:34.1); Darion Brooks, MEL, second (11:39.9); Jacob Mustain, EAWR, third (12:34.1); Andrew Hull, MEL, fourth (14:29.3)

110 HURDLES: Dalton Miller, EAWR, second (17.47); Eli Harding, MEL, third (18.70); Josh Jacobsen, MEL, fifth (18.91)

100 METERS: T.J. Lawson, EAWR, first (11.30); Elijah Culbert, MEL, third (11.71); Jon Stewart, Marquette, fourth (11.82); Logan Brawley, EAWR, fifth (11.86)

800 METERS: Brenden Springman, EAWR, first (2:13.4); Ryne White, EAWR, second (2:15.0); Seth Cox, Marquette, fourth (2:23.3); Christian Englebrecht, MEL, sixth (2:35.7)

4X200 RELAY: EAWR, first (1:36.5); Marquette, second (1:37.5); MEL, third (1:47.3)

400 METERS: Thadeous Weaver, EAWR, first (54.51); Nate Joehl, Marquette, third (55.86); Chase Wallendorf, EAWR, fourth (58.90); Christian Englebrecht, MEL, fifth (1:02.10); Caleb Englebrecht, MEL, sixth (1:08.50)

FRESHMAN-SOPHOMORE 4X100 RELAY: EAWR, first (52.00); MEL, second (1:00.10)

300 HURDLES: Eli Harding, MEL, second (43.31); Dalton Miller, EAWR, third (46.10); Hunter O'Brien, EAWR, fifth (47.99); Josh Jacobsen, MEL, sixth (48.14)

1,600 METERS: Brenden Springman, EAWR, first (5:07); Darion Brooks, MEL, third (5:21.5); Andrew Noack, EAWR, fourth (5:24.3); Skylar Cribbett, Marquette, fifth (5:45.7); Andrew Hall, MEL, sixth (6:30.9)

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200 METERS: T.J. Lawson, EAWR, first (23.6); Elijah Culbert, MEL, second (23.9); Zack Womack, EAWR, fourth (24,8); Jon Stewart, Marquette, fifth (24.9); Bryce Pettiford, Marquette, sixth (25.3)

4X400 RELAY: EAWR, first (3:54.8); Marquette Catholic, third (4:09.6); MEL, fourth (4:18.3)

GIRLS

SHOT PUT: Aurora Herbert, MEL, first (32-7); Megan Jacobson, MEL, second (30-11.5); Kim Gildersleeve, EAWR, sixth (24-9.5)

DISCUS THROW: Aurora Herbert, MEL, first (80-8); Megan Jacobson, MEL, second (80-7); Kim Gildersleeve, EAWR, fifth (60-0)

LONG JUMP: Carissa Gilreath, EAWR, first (14-3.5); Jamiah Lawson, MEL, third (12-6); Emily Schulte, MEL, fifth (11-3.5)

TRIPLE JUMP: Lydia Flaherty, MEL, third (26-9.5)

HIGH JUMP: Lydia Flaherty, MEL, first (4-10); Brooklyn Taylor, Marquette, third (4-2)

4x800 RELAY: EAWR, second (10:08.29)

4X100 RELAY: MEL, first (54.0); Marquette Catholic, third (55.9); EAWR, fifth (1:02.3)

3,200 METERS: Haley Kerpan, EAWR, first (15:58.2); Paulina Fuhrmann, MEL, second (16:49.1); Carrie Price, EAWR, third (18.37.7)

100 HURDLES: Kathryn Butler, MEL, first (18.0). Becca Nottke, EAWR, third (19.88); Kate Cogan, Marquette, fifth (20.5)

100 METERS: Ellen Schulte, MEL, first (13.1); Jaria Hardaway, MEL, second (13.2); Carissa Gilreath, EAWR, fourth (13.91); Kennedie Koetzle, Marquette, sixth (14.56)

800 METERS: Haley Kerpan, EAWR, first (2:27); Natalie Holliday, Marquette, second (2:32.1); Kaylee Dailey, EAWR, sixth (3:04.8)

4X200 METERS: MEL, first (1:54.5); Marquette, third (2:00.4); EAWR, fifth (2:39.2)

400 METERS: Carissa Gilreath, EAWR, second (1:06.1); Lydia Flaherty, MEL, third (1:11.4); Becca Nottke, EAWR, fourth (1:12.6)

FRESHMAN-SOPHOMORE 4X100 RELAY: EAWR, third (1:09.9)

300 HURDLES: Kathryn Butler, MEL, second (54,8); Kate Cogan, Marquette, fifth (1:01.9)

1,600 METERS: Haley Kerpan, EAWR, first (5:51.8); Natalie Halliday, Marquette, second (5:59.5); Kaylee Dailey, EAWR, fourth (7:17.2)

200 METERS: Jaria Hardaway, MEL, first (26.8); Ellen Schulte, MEL, second (27.76); Carissa Gilreath, EAWR, fourth (28.6); Lily Kostecki, Marquette, fifth (29.9)

4X400 RELAY: Marquette, second, 4:58.3; EAWR, third (5:01.4); MEL, fourth (5:14.1)