GRANITE CITY – it was a record-setting day for Alton at the Madison County Track and Field Championship large-school meet at Granite City’s Memorial Stadium/Kevin Greene Field Tuesday.
The Redbirds’ Katie Mans set a record in winning the high jump, leaping 5-7 to top the previous mark of 5-6 set by Granite City’s Natalie O’Keefe in 2013; Mans’ mark was among the highlights for the Redbirds on the day as both the boys and girls finished second behind Edwardsville, the Redbird boys scoring 135 points, trailing the Tigers’ 188 points; Collinsville (88), the host Warriors (76), Triad (35) and Highland (32) rounded out the field. The Redbird girls had 121 points, behind only the Tigers (164); Granite City and Triad tied for third with 86 points each, while Collinsville (59) and Highland (32) rounding out the field.
Alton’s boys performance pleased Redbird coach Jeff White. “We knew Edwardsville was going to be a tough team to beat,” White said. “Our goal was to get second place and score as many points as we can and have a good team effort today; that’s what we got out of them.
“I think what stood out for us was our team effort we had; a lot of guys rand three and four events to get us those points and we ran great. Even at the end with the 4×4, we had two guys on there – Arie Macias and Kelvin Cummings – who had already run the 4×8 and the open 800. Our leadoff runner, Ahmad (Sanders) had already run the open 400 – he got second in that – and he came back and ran the 4×4. Those guys were just tough for us.”
That 4×400 team of Sanders, Macias, Cummings and Terry Walker came from behind to catch Edwardsville coming down the stretch to win the event in 3:30.46, nearly four-tenths of a second ahead of the Tigers. 3:30.85. “It’s such a thrilling race, and to have it come down to the wire like that, it was a lot of fun for us as a team,” White said. “It puts some of our mid-distance guys with our sprinters, so it’s a team race for us. They really come together and battled
“That’s what we’ve been trying to do here is to build it as a team, not an individual competition – that’s been great for us.”
Kalen Samuelton took third in both throwing events on the day with a toss of 44-1.25 in the shot put and 158-4 in the discus throw, both efforts behind those of Edwardsville’s A.J. Epenesa and Bruce Wachowski, while Tony Smith took second in the long jump with a leap of 20-3.5. The 4×100 relay of Earlie Brown, Terry Walker, Jonathan Bumpers and Tony Dobbins won their event while Algerion Wilson took third in both hurdle events behind Edwardsville’s Travis Anderson and Matt Griebe.
Tuesday’s very windy conditions affected parts of the competition, but Mans didn’t let the wind bother her on her record-setting high jump. “I had to take a lot of time between each jump to make sure the wind would die down; even when I wasn’t jumping, the bar would fall off so we would have to wait; I knew I couldn’t go just yet.”
Mans was very happy with setting the meet record. “I’m absolutely happy with that,” Mans said.
Mans’ performance in the high jump wasn’t the only highlight of the day; Ty’Riss Holloway won the pole vault with a leap of 8-6, two feet better than Triad’s Alyssa Postma, while Rayn Tally took fourth in both the shot put and discus throw and Jeanea Epps took the 100 meters; the 4×400 relay with Katie and Kellie Mans running the opening and closing legs with Rashia Johnson and Alleyah Tuggle running the second and third legs finished second in the event behind Edwardsville.
Alton’s boys are back in Granite City for Friday’s Warrior Relays while the girls head to Collinsville for the Collinsville Invitational.
