Perfect Weather Sets Stage for Record Performances At Edwardsville Girls Invite

EDWARDSVILLE - Father McGivney had three winners, as Lilly Gilbertson won the 400 meters, and both the 4x400 meter and 4X800 meter relays, Emily Sykes of Granite City won the Shot Put, and Joi Story of Edwardsville won the discus throw, as Belleville East dominated the meet and went on the win the Edwardsville Girls Invitational track meet Friday afternoon at the Winston Brown Track and Field Center.

The Lancers won the meet with 180 points, while the host Tigers were second at 125 points, O'Fallon was third with 105 points, Freeburg came in fourth with 82 points, Belleville West came in fifth at 78.5 points, in sixth place was Bloomington at 57 points, Granite City came in seventh place with 35 points, the Griffins were eighth at 30 points, and Collinsville came in ninth with 21 points.

The conditions were very ideal for the meet, with sunny skies, a temperature near 70, and a small breeze blowing creating some good performances and times.

In the 100 meters, East won its first event of the day, as DeAndraney Chism took the 100 meters at 11.90 seconds, with Edwardsville's Joslyn Springman having a time of 12.44 seconds. Kailee Bashean of Granite came in seventh at 12.73 seconds, and Gabrielle Askew of the Kahoks finished 10th at 13.29 seconds. In the 200 meters, Chism won back-to-back events, coming in at 25.08 seconds, while Karli Barton of the Tigers was third at 26.05 seconds, teammate Jaylinn Bell came in sixth at 27.55 seconds, Askew was ninth at 27.82 seconds, and Sydney Williams of the Warriors rounded out the top ten with a time of 27.90 seconds.

Gilbertson won the 400 meters at 57.74 seconds, with Blakely Hockett of the Tigers fifth at 1:02.67, Springman was sixth at 1:03.47, and the Warriors' Autumn Wohlert finished10th at 1:08.95. The winner of the 800 meters was East's Bria Johnson at 2:28.66, while Granite's Emilee Franklin was fifth at 2:34.43, and Bella Horsfall of Edwardsville was 10th at 2:50.68.

In the 1,600 meters, Bloomington's Alex Noonan was the winner, having a time of 5:28.52, with third place going to the Tigers' Bethany Thoron at 6:05.07, and Danielle Cary of Collinsville was 10th at 6:39.03. Mae Naviera of O'Fallon won the 3,200 meters with a time of 11:52.89, with Margaret Paty of Edwardsville second at 12:09.62, and teammate Ella McDonald seventh at 14:45.19.

In the hurdles races, AnnMarie Trentman of Freeburg was the winner at 15.45 seconds, with Adara Martin of the Tigers coming in second, also at 15.45 seconds, while teammate Maddie Redden ninth at 19.12 seconds, and Sadie Demick of the Kahoks was 10th at 19.69 seconds. JaKariah Brown of the Lancers won the 300 meters at 47.07 seconds, with Demick coming in 10th at 54.78 seconds.

In the relay races, the Lancers won the 4x100 meters, having a time of 48.14 seconds, with the Warriors placing third at 51.22 seconds, and the Tigers came in fifth at 52.64 seconds. In the 4x200 meters, the winners were East at 1:41.85, with Edwardsville fourth at 1:52.56, and Granite City came in fifth at 1:56.88. The Griffins won the first of their two relays in the 4x400 meters, coming in at 4:02.19, with Edwardsville seventh at 4:29.19, and Granite was eighth, coming in at 4:38.03. McGivney also won the 4x900 meters with a time of 9:37.55, with Edwardsville second at 10:05.89, and Granite City was eighth at 12:19.51.

Over in the field events, Sykes took home the shot put win with a throw of 12.55 meters, with Story coming in second at 11.14 meters, Craig Hall of the Kahoks was third at 10.43 meters, fifth place went to the Tigers' Jayla Gathing with a toss of 9.46 meters, and Collinsville's Ellie Rhinehart was sixth, coming in at 9.13 meters. Story won the discus throw with a distance of 42.88 meters, with Rhinehart second at 33.47 meters, Gathing was third with a throw of 31.57 meters. while Collinsville's Skylar Thomeczek had a distance of 25.34 meters.

In the high jump, the Lancers' London Quarles cleared 1.52 meters to win the event, while Zuri Walker of the Tigers went over at 1.37 meters, as did Collinsville's Camryn Emig, Walker taking sixth on the fewest misses rule. Claudia Ifft of Bloomington won the pole vault, clearing 3.12 meters, while Bell cleared 2.37 meters to finish fifth, and Tiger teammate Addison Yammitz was sixth, going over at 2.22 meters.

The winner of the long jump was J'La Sparks of Belleville West, who went 4.93 meters, while Paige Sanders of Edwardsville was second at 4.89 meters, Alyssa Posten of Granite City was 4.59 meters, and teammate Kady Coulibaly was 10th at 4.14 meters. In the triple jump, Joslynn Chambers of the Panthers won the event at 10.57 meters, with Martin coming in second at 10.01 meters, Hockett was third at 9.82 meters, Posten came in fifth at 9.36 meters, and Coulibaly was 10th at 8.46 meters.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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