EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's boys track team had what Tiger coach Chad Lakatos “a great team effort” as the Tigers won their fourth straight Southwestern Conference championship at Edwardsville's Winston Brown Track and Field Complex Tuesday evening, scoring 150 points to East St. Louis' 132.5; O'Fallon took third with 88 points, Collinsville edged Belleville East 67.5 to 67 for fourth, Granite City and Belleville West tied for sixth with 60 points and Alton took eighth with 53 points on the evening.
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The Tiger JV easily took their team title with 193 points, with East St. Louis finishing second at 127 points, O'Fallon was third at 113, followed by Collinsville (72), Belleville West (58), Alton (36), Belleville East (29) and Granite City (five).
“We scored a lot of points, not only on the varsity side, but on the JV side as well,” Lakatos said. “It was our last opportunity for our kids to compete on our home turf, especially our seniors – a conference champ four-peat. I couldn't be happier for the group.”
The meet was also a good warmup for EHS ahead of next Thursday's IHSA Class 3A Moline Sectional. “We've got some decisions to make in some of our relays,” Lakatos said, “but we'll definitely put the guys in the right spot, but right now, we're happy for our kids; it's well-deserved. They've had a good season, but I don't want this to be the highlight of it.”
Edwardsville had several performers who stood out in the meet. “Blake Neville won the pole vault (at 14-4), (DeVonte') Tincher had a great day in both sprint relays (running the second leg of the 4x100 relay and leading off the 4x200 relay, both Edwardsville wins) and the long jump (with a 23-2.5 leap) and Darryl Harlan had a great day with a 49.94 in the open 400 (where he finished fourth) and then went 49.9 in the lead leg in the 4x400 (which the Tigers took thrid in); hats off to a lot of our kids.”
A.J. Epenesa and Bruce Wachowski went 1-2 in both the discus throw and shot put, Epenesa with tosses of 56-11.5 in the shot and 179-7 in the discus and Wachowski with a 53-10.5 in the shot and 165-0 in the discus; Lovantis Hairston took third in the high jump with a 5-11 jump and Matt Griebe was second in the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.87 seconds.
“Things are starting to come together, but we can't be content,” Lakatos said. “Our goal next week is not to win (the sectional team title), but to qualify as many as possible (to the state track meet in Charleston Memorial Day weekend).”
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