ALTON – Alton High’s girls’ track and field team enters the season with high expectations and should contend for the state title with an arsenal of weapons.
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Alton High School’s LaJarvia Brown and company are already off to a blazing start, even though Brown just recently hung up her basketball jersey for the last time.
Alton started the indoor season in style at Principia recently, with Brown winning the triple jump with a leap of 40 feet-7.5 inches, a meet record, and she also won the 60-meter high hurdles in 9.11, also a new meet record.
Brown went 15-2 in the long jump, her other key event and struggled a bit with her steps, but her coach Terry Mitchell said he expects Brown to work those out before the team moves outdoors.
Katie Mans, a state finalist in the high jump last year, returns for her sophomore season. She was second in the high jump in this meet with a leap of 5-feet even. Mans should be a mainstay for the team this year, also participating on relays.
Jewel Wagner, who also recently left the basketball courts, placed second in the shot put with a throw of 38-10.5 and teammate Chayvon Buckingham threw 37-feet even, to place just behind her in fourth position. Jeanea Epps took second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.05 seconds and Daysha Lacey was eighth in 8.37.
Mitchell said overall he thought his team did quite well in the indoor opener.
“There was not a team score, but we did well in quite a few events,” he said.
The freshman-sophomore 4 x 200 relay team of Lacey, Ashyln Green, Taquaria Foster and Epps. The varsity 4 x 200-meter relay also was second in a time of 1:52.49. That team consisted of Mans, Kimbreon Knight, Raina Valyo and Brown. The frosh-soph 1,600-meter relay was second in 4:39.74.
“All in all, we had a pretty competitive meet,” Mitchell said of the indoor track opener.
The Redbirds inext indoor meet is set for Saturday, March 4 at Jacksonville.
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