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ALTON - Alton's boys track team took the opportunity with the Southwestern Illinois Boys Relays to test several track and field athletes on Friday.
Steady rain and wind combined with temperatures in the 40s created less-than-ideal conditions to open the area's outdoor season at Edwardsville's Winston Brown Track and Field complex. Edwardsville's boys' team overcame the conditions to win the meet by two points over East St. Louis, the Tigers scoring 97 points to the Flyers' 95; Rockwood Summit of St. Louis County emerged third with 88 points, with O'Fallon taking fourth at 86 points and Belleville West finishing fifth with 55 points. Among area teams, Alton finished sixth with 44 points and Granite City took 10th with 12.5 points on the day.
The Redbirds' top finishes of the day came from Jaquez Roberson's 45-11 toss that won the shot put for Alton; Roberson also took second in the discus throw with a 132-7 throw, while the 4x100 relay team of Earlie Brown, Terry Walker, Jonathan Bumpers and Deonte McGoy took third in a time of 44.19 seconds. Ahmad Sanders took fifth in the long jump at 20-7.75 and Tony Smith was eighth in the 100 meters with a time of 12.05 seconds.
“The weather wasn't great,” said Redbird coach Jeff White. “We were resting a lot of our top sprinters and our top two distance guys because they're running in (Saturday's) Illinois Top Times meet (the unofficial state indoor track meet at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington), so we were definitely a little shorthanded, but it gave a really good opportunity for some other guys to step up and run, some guys trying to win final spots and show what they've got.
“It was a good opportunity for them and our freshmen and sophomores; I thought they did pretty good for being what it was today. We had two pretty good long jump performances, our (4x100 relay) did pretty good today; that was our top one today.”
White was pleased with the performances despite the conditions. “It was a wet day, a cold day, a chilly day,” White said, “but give it to the kids; our guys still went out there and ran and competed.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
