EDWARDSVILLE - Former basketball player Mark Smith, along with current Buffalo Bills player A.J. Epenesa, were among the honorees who were inducted into the Class of 2025 into the Edwardsville High School Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies held at the Sunset Hills Country Club in Edwardsville on Saturday night.
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Smith, who graduated in 2017, averaged 21.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in his senior season, and also helped lead the Tigers to a 30-2 record and a berth in the IHSA Class 4A super-sectional game. scoring 45 points in the sectional final. He was named Mr. Basketball in Illinois for his performance that season. He went on to play in college for Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas State, and is currently playing professionally in Europe.
Epenesa, who also graduated in 207. set the all-time school career record in sacks with 15, He also won five medals in track and field and helped lead the Tigers to the IHSA Class 3A state championship in 2017, winning five career medals, and also was an All-State basketball player. He played for three years at Iowa, and was drafted 54th overall in the second round by the Bills in the 2021 NFL Draft. He recently played in the AFC Championship Game, as Buffalo lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. He also joins his sister Sam, who was inducted for her volleyball career in 2022.
Collin Gardiner, a 1996 graduate, ran for 1,416 yards and 25 touchdowns in his senior season, and also ran for a school-record 1,927 yards and 22 touchdowns as a junior. He helped the Tigers to their first undefeated regular season in 1995, going 11-1 overall before losing to East St. Louis in the Class 5A quarterfinals. He also was a standout pitcher for the baseball team, going 15-1 in his career as a pitcher, and also hit .357 in his senior year, with 25 RBIs, helping the Tigers to regional titles in his junior and senior years.
Cody Clayton was the second bowler to win the state championship in Tigers' history, throwing a 2,783 12-game series to win the championship. by six pins in 2009. He finished fourth in the Alton sectional to qualify for the state finals.
Also inducted was the 2015 track team who won the state championship, their first under head coach Chad Lakatos. The Tigers won with 55 points, outdistancing both Naperville Neuqua Valley and Evanston, who tied for second.
Fontez Davis won the long jump, the only individual state champion, while Epenesa in the discus throw, Travis Anderson in the 110-meter hurdles, and Wes Schoenthal in the 800 meters, all finished second.
Larry and Nancy Suhre, owners of the Oak Brook Golf Club, were inducted as contributors for helping the Tigers' golf teams, allowing them to play on their course, starting in 1974. while the 2003-04 boys bowling team was also inducted. The team won the state championship in only the second-ever boys tournament, while Zach Hahs won the individual championship. The team was coached by the late Dennis Erlich.
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