GRANITE CITY – Edwardsville got some big performances Thursday at the rain-delayed Southwestern Conference Boys Track and Field Championship at the newly renamed Kevin Greene Field/Memorial Stadium in Granite City.
One of those big performances: A.J. Epenesa, who topped his own conference mark in the discus throw, opening with a 189-3 throw and winning the event with a record 190-5 toss as the Tigers went on to record their third straight league title with a 164-point performance, defeating East St. Louis by 19 points (the Flyers had 145 points). O’Fallon was third with 96 points, followed by Belleville West (85), Collinsville (59), Belleville East (46.5), Alton (45.5) and the host Warriors (40).
The Tigers also took the JV competition on the day, scoring 198 points to easily outdistance the Lancers (105 points), followed by the Flyers (97), Panthers (87), Maroons (83), Kahoks (40), Redbirds (29) and Warriors (six).
Epenesa’s performances in both the discus and shot put weren’t the only big performances for the Tigers; EHS’ field events helped give the Tigers points to build a cushion heading into the running events, and Tiger coach Chad Lakatos thought it was a big help. “It takes a lot of pressure off the track,” Lakatos said. “Looking at the seed times, we weren’t as strong as East St. Louis on the track, but we knew we could make some ground (up on the Flyers), so we talked to the kids about doing their job, competing, and that’s what they did. It was a great team effort.
“It’s just not about Travis (Anderson, who won both hurdle events) or A.J.; it’s about the fifth- and sixth-place guys working their butts off (to help the team). Today was all about points, so we loaded guys up; we won’t do that next week (at the IHSA Class 3A Collinsville Sectional meet). Our approach will be different, so we’ll concentrate on the events that we think we have a real good shot at (qualifying for the) state (meet), so that’ll be our focus. We’ll give the kids a couple of days off and get back out there on Monday and focus on the sectional.”
“We did all right,” said Redbird coach Jeff White. “We were a little flat in a couple of the relays, a couple of the sprints, but I felt we had some great performances in the shot and (discus) from Zach Llewellyn (Llewellyn took second in the discus with a 145-4 effort and third in the shot with a 51-9 toss); he made the all-conference team with those (performances).
“The (4×400 relay team) had a great race, great battle with Belleville West and they did really well, they got all-conference as well.”
“We placed in events that we thought we would,” said Warrior coach Tom Miller. “We would have liked to have a little bit better place in the (4×400), but we knew with us running multiple events before that we would have to have a perfect day to even get third place; the conference is that stacked. When you have a team like Edwardsville that just won the state championship being challenged by a team like East St. Louis and Belleville West (that are always contenders), it’s a tough conference.”
Here’s how area athletes fared in the events in both the varsity and JV competitions on the day:
VARSITY
HIGH JUMP: Travis Anderson, Edwardsville, T-second (6-3); Justin White, Edwardsville, T-second (6-3); Jonathan Bumpers, Alton, T-sixth (5-11); Torrey Deal, Granite City, T-sixth (5-11)
POLE VAULT: Blake Neville, Edwardsville, third (13-1); Justin Citrowske, Edwardsville, fourth (12-1); Wilyonde Bell, Granite City, seventh (10-7)
LONG JUMP: DeVonte Tincher, Edwardsville, second (22-3); Justin White, Edwardsville, fourth (20-8); Marquis Shaw, Granite City, 11th (18-2.75)
TRIPLE JUMP: Tariq Minor, Edwardsville, fourth (42-5.25); Jonathan Bumpers, Alton, fifth (41-9.5); Levon Hendricks, Edwardsville, sixth (41-3); Torrey Deal, Granite City, eighth (40-7.25); Marquis Shaw, Granite City, 10th (37-10)
SHOT PUT: A.J. Epenesa, Edwardsville, first (57-2); Desmond Chappel, Edwardsville, second (55-1); Zach Llewellyn, Alton, third (51-9); Kalen Samuelton, Alton, sixth (46-10); Steve Jenkins, Granite City, 10th (42-4)
DISCUS THROW: A.J. Epenesa, Edwardsville, first (190-5 – Meet record; previous mark, 180-0, Epenesa, 2015); Zack Llewellyn, Alton, second (145-4); Bruce Wachowski, Edwardsville, third (142-5); Kalen Samuelton, Alton, sixth (126-9); Steve Jenkins, Granite City, eighth (121-3); Anthony Guzman, Granite City, ninth (118-8)
4X800 RELAY: Granite City, first (8:03.33); Edwardsville, third (8:38.08)
4X100 RELAY: Edwardsville, second (41.86); Alton, fourth (43.18); Granite City, seventh (46.10)
3,200 METERS: Max Hartmann, Edwardsville, fourth (10:04.64); Daniel Powell, Edwardsville, fifth (10:15.14); Leo Nikonowicz, Granite City, seventh (10:45.87); Eriberto Neri, Granite City, eighth (10:51.19)
110 HURDLES: Travis Anderson, Edwardsville, first (13.96); Matt Grebe, Edwardsville, fourth (15.09); Tyler Tindall, Granite City, eighth (16.65)
100 METERS: DeVonte’ Tincher, Edwardsville, fifth (11.09); Seth Jacobs, Edwardsville, ninth (11.36); Tony Dobbins, Alton, 10th (11.38); Wilyonde Bell, Granite City, 11th (11.57); Dane Hutson, Alton, 12th (11.76)
800 METERS: Will O’Keefe, Granite City, third (1:57.30); Franky Romano, Edwardsville, fifth (1:59.73); Jacob Schoenthal, Edwardsville, ninth (2:04.39); Alexander Davis, Alton, 11th (2:06.12); Evan Rathgeb, Alton, 13th (2:08.05)
4X200 RELAY: Edwardsville, third (1:31.09); Alton, fifth (1:31.71)
400 METERS: Tommy Giacobbe, Edwardsville, third (51.76); Ronal Gilchrese, Alton, eighth (53.70); Devin Cunningham, Edwardsville, 11th (55.86)
300 HURDLES: Travis Anderson, Edwardsville, first (38.30); Juwan Riggins, Granite City, sixth (40.69); Chrys Colley, Edwardsville, ninth (41.60)
1,600 METERS: Andrew O’Keefe, Granite City, second (4:30.14); Arie Macias, Alton, fourth (4:38.17); Roland Prenzler, Edwardsville, fifth (4:40.85); Franky Romano, Edwardsville, sixth (4:43,84); Leo Nikonowicz, Granite City, 11th (4:51.17)
200 METERS: DeVonte’ Tinchler, Edwardsville, third (22.25); Tommy Giacobbe, Edwardsville, seventh (23.20); Simeon Brown, Alton, ninth (23.60); Dane Hutson, Alton, 10th (23.79)
4X400 RELAY: Alton, third (3:25.81); Granite City, fifth (3:31.52); Edwardsville, seventh (3:33.13)
JUNIOR VARSITY
HIGH JUMP: Donovan Booker, Edwardsville, first (5-7); Kenneth Bond, Edwardsville, second (5-7); Brooklyn Ellison, Alton, fourth (5-5)
POLE VAULT: Jackson Warrer, Edwardsville, first (11-1); Sam Tilden, Edwardsville, second (10-1)
LONG JUMP: Kenneth Bond, Edwardsville, first (20-7); Jaylen Cooper, Edwardsville, 10th (16-7)
TRIPLE JUMP: Jack Townsend, Edwardsville, first (39-7)
SHOT PUT: Myles Marfall, Alton, first (43-9); Amari Brooks, Edwardsville, second (41-0); Lucas Davis, Edwardsville, third (40-7); Donovan Porter, Alton, seventh (35-1); Chase Gasner, Granite City, 10th (28-5)
DISCUS THROW: Amari Brooks, Edwardsville, first (139-2); Cale Warrer, Edwardsville, second (116-1); Donovan Porter, Alton, seventh (84-2)
4X800 RELAY: Alton, first (8:59.23); Granite City, fifth (9:15.15); Edwardsville, sixth (9:21.20)
4X100 RELAY: Edwardsville, third (44.71)
3,200 METERS: Sam McCormick, Edwardsville, second (10:47.88); Andrew Meng, Edwardsville, third (11:19.95)
110 HURDLES: Daval Torres, Edwardsville, first (15.48); Xavier McKenney, Edwardsville, fifth (17.93)
100 METERS: Kendall Abdur-Rahman, Edwardsville, second (11.62); DJ Harris, Edwardsville, sixth (11.87)
800 METERS: Devon Madison, Edwardsville, third (2:14.47); Cameron Johnston, Edwardsville, sixth (2:16.98); Alex Gray, Granite City, 10th (2:23.19); Tramel Ellis, Granite City, 11th (2:24.23); Bradley Pioros, Alton, 13th (2:32.74)
4X200 RELAY: Edwardsville, first (1:32.94)
400 METERS: Kenneth Bond, Edwardsville, third (54.41); Donovan Booker, Edwardsville, fourth (55.92); Zach Shields, Granite City, 10th (59.93)
300 HURDLES: Xavier McKenney, Edwardsville, fifth (46.10)
1,600 METERS: Todd Baxter, Edwardsville, second (4:57.49); Tyler Farrar, Edwardsville, seventh (5:09.80); Aidan Sampson, Granite City, eighth (5:11.86); Kariem Ali, Granite City, ninth (5:27.47)
200 METERS: Matt Gaddy, Edwardsville, third (23.82); Kendall Abdur-Rahman, Edwardsville, fourth (24.04); Jayden Singleton, Alton, ninth (25.63)
4X400 RELAY: Edwardsville, second (3:42.88); Granite City, sixth (3:58.64)
