Edwardsville Dominates Track Prelims, Many Athletes Into Finals

CHARLESTON - Edwardsville qualified many of its athletes for the finals, including Iose Epenesa in both the shot put and discus throw, with Malik Allen qualifying first in the triple jump, and Clayton Lakatos placing second in the 200 meters in the preliminaries of the IHSA Class 3A boys state track meet at O'Brien Stadium at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

In the preliminaries, the top nine finishers in the running races, along with the top 12 in the 1,600 meters, and in the shot put, discus throw, long jump, and high jump go through to the finals, while the top nine, plus ties, go through in the high jump and pole vault. The qualifiers for the finals compete for the state championship as individuals and a team on Saturday.

In the 100 meters, Sam Elliott-Barnes of Alton had a time of 11.01 seconds, but didn't qualify, while in the 200 meters, Lakatos had a time of 21.61 seconds to qualify second, and Zach Lane qualified in fourth at 21.69 seconds, while Elliott-Barnes came in at 22.04 seconds, missing out on the final. In the 400 meters, Collinsville's Jalek Nelson had a time of 51.11 seconds, but failed to qualify, while Elliott-Barnes didn't start the race, and was scratched.

Colin Thomas of the Tigers had a time in the 800 meters of 1:58.98, but missed on qualifying, while Granite City's Landon Harris came in in the 1,600 meters at 4:21.97, also failing to qualify.

In the relay races, Edwardsville qualified first in 4x100 meters, having a time of 41.35 seconds, while Alton was in at 43.34 seconds, missing out on the final. The Tigers also qualified first in the 4x200 meters at 1:26.54, with the Redbirds coming in at 1:29.36, but failing to qualify.

In the results of the field events, Habermehl qualified in seventh in the shot put, having a toss of 17.21 meters, with Epenesa qualifying 12th at 16.76 meters. Epenesa qualified second in the discus throw with a toss of 57.11 meters, while Habermehl qualified in 10th at 49.82 meters, and Edwardsville's Javion Smith had a throw of 45.15 meters, but failed to qualify. In the high jump, the Kahoks' K.J. Thorps-Watt qualified 15th, clearing 1.93 meters, while Devyon Hill-Lomax of Edwardsville went over at 1.90 meters, but just missed out on qualifying.

In the pole vault, Collinsville's Ayden Gratzll couldn't clear the opening height of the competition and had to retire at no height, missing out on the final. Jacob Wahl of Edwardsville qualified 11th in the long jump, going 6.73 meters, while Allen failed to qualify, going 6,43 meters. Allen bounced back in the triple jump, qualifying first at 14.86 meters, while teammate Gino Montgomery went 12.86 meters, failing to qualify.

The finals qualifiers all will compete for the individual titles, along for state team championship points, on Saturday at O'Brien Stadium.

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