GRANITE CITY – Edwardsville’s DeVonte’ Tincher had a pretty light day in Friday’s Granite City Invitational boys track meet, just running the second leg in the Tigers’ 4×100 relay and leadoff in the 4×200 relay; Edwardsville won both races en route to taking the team championship with 138 points, a total of 39 points better than second-place Cahokia’s 99 points.
“Coach (Chad Lakatos) told us we had a light day today,” Tincher said following the meet, “and we should come out and blow everyone out of the water; we just ran our hardest and things clicked and went well. It was definitely a lot easier not having to do four events or three events; coach told me coming into the meet, ‘today’s going to be an easy day for you, just 4×1 and 4×2.’
“We get this whole week to rest, have light practices and hopefully get ready for (the) Winston Brown (Invitational this Saturday in Edwardsville); it was nice, everyone competed very well today – the weather was nice until right when the meet ended, it started to rain a little bit. We all came out, had fun and we’re grateful to take home first place.”
The goal, as always, is for the Tigers to peak at the end of May when the IHSA Class 3A boys track sectional and state meet takes place. “The way coach sets up our training, you can expect faster times, better distances as far as throws and jumps – higher vaults and jumps,” Tincher said. “We have a very good coaching staff that know what they’re doing.”
Tincher, a senior, is grateful for having many good teammates on the Tigers. “All the seniors that we have – we’re all a bunch of brothers, we all love each other like brothers, treat each other like brothers,” he said.
EHS’ Winston Brown Invitational begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at the track complex named for him, followed by the Madison County large-school championship at 4 p.m. April 25 in Granite City and the Triad Invitational at 4 p.m. April 28.
