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BELLEVILLE – Edwardsville's girls track team is sending two relay teams and two individuals to next weekend's IHSA Class 3A state track meet in Charleston.
The 4x800 and 4x100 relay teams and Abby Korak, who won the 1600 meters, and Jaycie Hudson, who took second in the 3200 meters, all advanced to O'Brien Stadium at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston for the state meet.
“We've got distance and sprinters” going to the state meet, said first-year Tiger coach Camilla Eberlin. “The girls worked very hard – I'm very happy with it; we're building a program – we're on the right step. I'm very excited.”
The Tigers finished seventh as a team with 43 points; East St. Louis won the team title with 91 points, followed by O'Fallon (68), Quincy (66), Springfield (51.5), Belleville West and Rock Island (46 each), the Tigers, Belleville East (32), Normal West (24), Alton and Chatham Glenwood (18 each), Moline (17.5), Galesburg (16), Granite City (12), Pekin (5), Collinsville (3) and East Moline United (1).
One team that just missed out on a state berth was the 4x400 relay team of Rachel Kubicek, Victoria Vegher, Jaydi Swanson and Lorie Cashdollar; officials ruled that the team had been interfered with at the start of the third leg when a runner from another school stopped at the end of her leg and caused a crash that knocked down the Edwardsville runners. The Tigers were awarded a rerun and the team just missed a state berth by nearly two seconds.
“That was an amazing performance in the rerun,” Eberlin said. “I'm very proud of them.”
The 4x800 relay team of Cashdollar, Korak, Vegher and Madeline Miller won their event in 9:39.40, while the 4x100 relay team of Alexis Boykin, Kubicek, Kymel Bell and Quierra Love beat the state qualifying standard with a run of 48.82 seconds; a total of nine teams, including Granite City and Alton, advanced to the state meet in the event.
Korak won the 1600 meters in 5:15.33 while Hudson moved on with a second-place finish in the 3200 meters with a time of 11:34.76. The top two finishers in each event and all those who met qualifying standards moved on to Charleston.
“She's (Korak) a strong runner,” Eberlin said. “I'm very excited to see her get up there with some runners at Charleston; I think she can do great things.”
Competition in state meet begins Thursday with qualifying sessions, with additional qualifying set for Friday; the state finals in all three classes will be held Saturday.
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