MOLINE – Edwardsville is sending nine individuals and a relay team to next weekend's IHSA Class 3A state track and field meet at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium from Thursday's Moline Sectional meet.
The Tigers emerged victorious from the meet, scoring 125 points to finish ahead of East St. Louis, who had 78 points. Normal West and East Moline United tied for third with 41 points each and Collinsville rounded out the top five with 40 points. Other area teams taking part were Granite City (eighth at 32 points) and Alton (ninth at 26 points).
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The top two finishers in each event automatically advanced to the state meet, with all those outside of the top two who met state qualifying standards also advancing to the state meet.
The 4x200 relay team of DeVonte' Tincher, Kendall Abdur-Raheem, Darryl Harlan and Dionte Rodgers finished second in the event with a time of 1:28.98, behind East St. Louis' Marcus Lampley, Jarell Anderson, Malcolm Bell and Anthony Hartley, who won the event in 1:28.53. Blake Neville won the pole vault with a leap of 14-7 to advance, while Justin White leaped 6-3 in the high jump to qualify for state, finishing third in the event.
A.J. Epenesa won both the discus throw and shot put with tosses of 181-9 in the disc and 56-3 in the shot; teammate Bruce Wachowski finished second in the discus with a 166-2 throw, but just missed in the shot put, finishing third with a put of 51-7. Travis Anderson qualified for state in two events, winning the 110 hurdles in 13.64 and second in the 300 hurdles in 38.10, just eight-one-hundreths of a second behind East St. Louis' Delano Anderson (38.02); teammate Matt Griebe also advanced in both hurdle events with a time of 14.48, good for third place in the 110, and 39.95 in the 300 hurdles, good for third place.
Roland Prenzler advanced to state in the 3,200 meters with a time of 9:41.97, good for second place behind East Moline United's Dalton Martin (9:36.16). Franky Romano moved into the state 800 meters with a second-place finish in 1:55.95 behind O'Fallon's Chris Conrad (1:53.61). Tincher also qualified in the 200 meters, winning the event in 21.71, just ahead of Collinsville's Trevore Sanders (21.86).
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