EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville High School boy’s track team is once again IHSA Class 3A Sectional Champions.
The Tigers hosted 14 other schools from lower and central Illinois at Winston Brown Track and came out on top with a team score of 106 points. Their lead was comfortable with O’Fallon coming in second with 64 points.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Alton placed fifth with 46 points.
The Tigers won three of the four relay events on the day.
The 4x100m relay group of junior Kellen Brnfre and sophomores Clayton Lakatos, Darren Wilson, and Zach Lane ran a season-best 41.52 seconds. That same group won the 4x200m relay in a time of 1:27.11, also a season best.
Finally, seniors Xavier Valdez and Braylon Heavens teamed up with Lakatos and Wilson to win the 4x400m relay in a time of 3:23.49, another season best.
All three of those relay times were fast enough to qualify for state.
Edwardsville had two other first-place finishes and they both came in the field events, both athletes setting new PRs.
Junior Malik Allen won the triple jump with a mark of 14.42m while sophomore Iose Epenesa won the discus with a throw of 54.42m. Both of those marks qualified them for state.
Epenesa also took second in the shot put with a throw of 15.73m while senior teammate Dorian Arguelles was fourth at 14.60m.
Alton senior Simon McLaine secured his team’s one and only first-place finish with a time of 39.76 seconds in the 300m hurdles. That time was a PR and qualified him for state. Earlier in the meet, he took second in the 100m hurdles with a state-qualifying time of 15.26 seconds.
The Redbirds’ junior Samuel Elliot-Barnes finished third in the 100m dash with a time of 11.10 seconds.
O’Fallon won the 4x800m relay in a time of 7:51.19 while Alton finished fifth (8:27.61) and Edwardsville sixth (8:29.72). Alton took third in the 4x100m (42.48).
The Tigers’ sophomore Hugh Davis and junior Ben Perulfi finished third and fifth in the two-mile with times of 9:52.15 and 9:58.01 respectively. Senior Ben Ziobro (4:37.08) and sophomore Jackson Amick (4:37.88) finished fourth and sixth in the mile.
In the 800m, Edwardsville junior Alex Uder finished second with a time of 1:57.07 while senior teammate Sam Wittek was sixth at 2:00.21. Alton senior Christian Kotzamanis was eighth at 2:00.62.
Back to field events, the Tigers’ sophomores Jayden Cole (6.54m) and Jacob Wahl (6.17m) finished second and sixth in the long jump. Behind Allen in the triple jump was sophomore teammate Gino Montgomery in second with a mark of 13.84m who also qualified for state.
Edwardsville senior Ethan Stukenberg (4.16m) and junior Nicholas Helton (3.41) finished fourth and seventh in the pole vault.
Those that qualified will head on to the state meet held at the Big Blue Track at Eastern Illinois University from Thursday, May 25 to Saturday, May 27.
More like this:
