CHARLESTON – When he was needed the most, DeVonte' Tincher delivered for Edwardsville – and delivered big.
Tincher entered the 200-meter final at Saturday's IHSA Class 3A state track meet at Eastern Illinois' O'Brien Field needing an eighth or better finish to clinch the state championship; Tincher closed out his senior year with a fifth-place finish in the event, covering the distance in 21.97 seconds to give Edwardsville five points to take their total to 42, allowing them to edge out East St. Louis by three points for the team title, the Tigers' second in three years.
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“It feels amazing,” Tincher said. “I came in my freshman year wanting to win the state championship for my team; the fact that it came all came on me for the 200 is the best way to end my high school career. Getting these points for the team and putting us in position to get us a first-place medal – words can't describe how happy I am.
“My freshman year, we finished second; sophomore year, we won; last year, we finished second; we came into the season hoping to be one of the most dominate track classes that's ever gone through Edwardsville, and now that we've added two state championship titles to that, I think helps my legacy as far as Travis Anderson, Matt Griebe, Darryl Harlan – just a group of all the seniors – A.J. (Epenesa), of course; It's amazing. I'm glad to be bringing home another state championship for my hometown.”
Tincher admitted feeling some pressure heading into the race, considering what was at stake, but encouragement and support from his teammates helped. “It was a lot at first, but my team came over and said 'look, we know what you can do; you've done it before,'” Tincher said. “Coach (Alec) Holler, coach (Chad) Lakatos and even coach (George) Patrylak and my jumps coach, coach (Carry) Bailey came to me and said, 'lane nine sucks, but you're the only one who ran in negative-4 wind besides the guys in your heat, so go out there, run your race and do your thing and you should be fine.'”
That Anderson and Epenesa had scored 30 big points in winning their events helped out as well. “It takes a lot of pressure off me,” Tincher said, “so if I ever make a mistake like I did at sectionals, our team has enough depth to where we have some wiggle room in certain things.”
