WOOD RIVER - East St. Louis was the dominant team in the IHSA Class 2A boys track sectional on Thursday, sending many of its athletes to next week's state meet in winning the team championship at East Alton-Wood River Memorial Stadium.
The Flyers took the meet with 156 points, with Cahokia finishing second at 113 points, Triad came in third at 63 points, Civic Memorial was fourth at 56 points and Springfield Lanphier rounded out the top five with 37 points. Roxana was eighth with 15 points, Highland and Jacksonville tied for 10th place with 12 points apiece, Jersey tied for13th with Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic, both teams scoring five points and the host Oilers were 16th with a single point.
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In each event, the top two finishers automatically qualified for the state meet, while those outside the first two who met or exceeded the state standard also qualified for state.
Kenneth Buchanon won the 100 meters at 11.00 seconds and was the only area qualifier, while in the 200 meters, Buchanon was second at 21.91 seconds, while teammate Devion Montgomery qualified with a third place time of 22.31 seconds. In the 400 meters, Montgomery was the winner with a time of 49.27 seconds, while teammate Quentin Stepney was second at 49.84 seconds.
Six local runners qualified in the 800 meters, led by CM's Justice Eldredge, who won the race at 1:57.76, with the Flyers' Darius Ivy coming in second at 2:00.38. Also qualifying were the Eagles' Lucas Naugle at 2:01.02, Dallas Mancinas of Highland at 2:01.08, Roxana's Wyatt Doyle at 2:01.49 and Triad's Miles Venhaus at 2:01.63. CM's Jackson Collman won the 1,600 meters at 4:27.53 to go through to state, while Drew Twyman of the Knights was third, qualifying for state with a time of 4:30.90 and the Eagles' D.J. Dutton went through in fourth at 4:33.20. Collman was the area's only qualifier in the 3,200 meters, winning the race at 9:42.42.
In the hurdles races, Demarlynn Taylor of East St. Louis went through in the 110 meters, winning with a time of 14.69 seconds, with the Comanches' Keyshawn Lyons finishing second at 14.78 seconds, the area's only qualifiers. In the 300 meters, Taylor and Lyons again finished one-two to qualify for state, with Taylor winning at 37.94 seconds and Lyons second at 38.81 seconds. They'll be joined at state by the Flyers' Armonie Jones, who came in third at 40.55 seconds, and Cahokia's Lorenzo Johnson-Cutler, who's fourth place time of 41.09 seconds put him through to state.
Over in the relays, East Side won the 4x100 meters with a time of 41.88 seconds, with Triad second at 43.13 seconds and Cahokia qualifying for state in third at 43.16 seconds. In the 4x200 meters, the Knights won with a time of 1:27.78, with second place going to the Comanches at 1:29.75 and the Flyers in third, qualifying with a time of 1:30.42. The 4x400 meters saw East Side win at 3:20.54, with Cahokia in second at 3:23.48 and in the 4x800 meters, the Eagles won with a time of 8:09.58 and the Bulldogs qualified in third at 8:18.77.
In the field events, the shot put was won by Cahokia's Chase Crawford, who had a throw of 19.09 meters, with Triad's Zach Van Tieghem coming in second at 15.38 meters, while Andrew Bownes of East Side qualified in third with a toss of 15.31 meters. In the discus throw, the winner was the Shells' Ashton Noble, who had a throw of 50.70 meters, with Crawford coming in second at 50.55 meters, with Bownes going through to state with a third place throw of 46.12 meters and CM's Josh Hodge got off a throw of 43.99 meters to place fourth and also go through to state.
Nicholas Deloach of the Comanches won the high jump, clearing the bar at 1.95 meters, with Tashon Crockarell o the Knights finishing second at 1.90 meters to qualify for state, while the Flyers' Curtis Bownes and Denium Powell both cleared 1.85 meters to advance to the state meet. In the pole vault, Parker Friederich of the Knights was the only local qualifier for state, finishing third at 3.96 meters, the state's qualifying standard.
Deloach won the long jump with a leap of 6.62 meters, while teammate Jo'Viano Howard was the only other area qualifier, finishing second at 6.45 meters, while in the triple jump, Deloach also won with a distance of 14.38 meters, with teammate Lorenzo Johnson-Cutler second at 13.10 meters and East Side's Tyreque Baker qualifying in third with a leap of 13.01 meters.
The state qualifiers will compete in the IHSA meet May 25-27 at O'Brien Stadium on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
To come, interviews with Coach Colona and Coach Peal, plus Athlete of Month profile on Roxana's Ashton Noble.Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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