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EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville boys track team performed very well in finishing second in the Southwestern Illinois Relays held Friday at the Winston Brown Track and Field Center, finishing second with 113 points, with O’Fallon taking the meet with 115 points.
“I thought we did well,” said Tigers’ coach Chad Lakatos. “I think we left some points out, not only on the track, but the field, and that’s just the way it goes. It’s early, and I’m happy with where we are. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but it seems like I continue to say that, but it’s where we’re at. It’s a hard-working team, and each meet, I think we’re just going to continue to get better.”
The hard work aspect has always been a trademark of a very talented Edwardsville team, and it bodes well as the season progresses.
“Yeah, in previous years, we’ve had big talent coming in,” Lakatos said, “just trying to hold on to the end this year. I think things are a little bit different, but we’ve just got to keep working, and trying to find out where everybody fits, and hopefully, some guys maybe that didn’t get an opportunity to run today, maybe they can find a spot at our next meet at O’Fallon, at the O’Fallon relays, but our conference is tough, and we’re going to have our hands full. O’Fallon’s a great team, and Belleville East looked pretty good today as well. So. we’ve got our work out in front of us.”
And as usual, every meet between the Southwestern Conference schools will be typically tough.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a dogfight,” Lakatos said. “And that’s what makes it fun, and that’s just going to continue to get us better. So, we still have some goals in front of us, and that’s what we’re working towards, and hopefully, like I said, each meet, we can continue to get better.”
In the track events, the Tigers got a second place finish in the 440-meter shuttle hurdles relay, as the team of Justin Johnson, Jr., Daniel Powell, Xavier McKenney, and Kyle Polson had a time of 1:08.74, a second in the 4x800-meter relay, with the team of Zach Walters, Alexander Valdez, Colton O’Brien and Drew Stover coming in at 8:41.23, Max Hartmann winning the 1,600 meters with a time of 4:43.36, McKenney taking third in the 300-meter hurdles at 43.46 seconds, the 4x200-meter relay team of Kenyon Johnson, Carson Bateman, Aarion Jackson and Brandon Battle finishing fourth at 1:34.54, the team of Jack Pifer, Todd Baxter, Mason Miller and Roland Prenzler winning the 4,000 meter distance relay with a time of 11:00.96, and the 4x400-meter relay team of Battle, Josh Reed, Jackson Borden and Justin Johnson, Jr., taking fourth at 3:38.29.
In the field events, Lavontas Hairston was third in the high jump with a leap of 5’ 10”, while Jack Nafziger tied for fourth at 5’ 6”, Kenyon Johnson won the long jump at 20 feet, 11.25 inches, Noah Goldsmith was second in the triple jump at 41’ 6.25”, with Jordan Brooks finishing fourth at 40’ 1.5”, and Blake Williams won the shot put with a toss of 48’ 9”, with George Rasmussen placing fourth at 45’ 7.5”.
Colin Feeney also contributed to this story.
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