The boys track and field program at East St. Louis Senior High has been a big part of why the community is known as the “City of Champions.”
The Flyers added another state championship to the school’s trophy case after winning the IHSA Class 2A state championship last weekend at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. It was the 13th state championship for the Flyers.
East Side won the championship with 72 points with fellow metro east rival Cahokia finishing in second with 59 points.
The Flyers won state championships in three events and spread out the scoring in a total of 10 events on the day. Senior Devion Montgomery won the 400-meter dash in a time of 48.17 seconds while senior Demarlynn Taylor won the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 37.85 seconds. The 4×400-meter relay team of Quenton Stepney, Taylor, Darris Ivy and Montgomery won the state title in 3 minutes 18.73 seconds.
Junior Kenneth Buchanon finished eighth in the 100-meter dash and fourth in the 200-meter dash. Montgomery was fifth in the 200 and Stepney was eighth in the 400. Taylor also earned a third-place medal in the 110-meter high hurdles.
The Flyers also finished second in the 4×100-meter relay and third in the 4×200 relay. Tyeque Baker was eighth in the triple jump and Andrew Bownes was eighth in the shot put.
Cahokia took home a second-place team trophy on the strength of some excellent field event work by Nicholas Deloach and Chase Crawford. Deloach won the triple jump with an effort of 45 feet 11 inches. He also finished second in the high jump and fourth in the long jump. Crawford won the shot put and finished fifth in the discus. His winning throw in the shot put was 63 feet 3 inches. Keshawn Lyons came up big in the hurdles with second-place finishes in the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles.