Many of
the area’s top athletes will be headed to Lawrence, Kan. this
weekend to compete in the Kansas Relays. The meet organizers are
bringing in some of the world’s top performers to compete in the
open divisions.
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>The high school divisions will feature top athletes from the state of Missouri and Kansas. The running events will begin on Friday after the opening ceremonies.
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>The boys from Hazelwood Central and girls from Ladue will be taking strong units to Kansas. Central’s Michael Hester and Marc Franks are scheduled to compete in the 400-meter dash. The Hawks are also taking hurdler Tyrone Williams and some very good sprint-relay teams. Ladue girls standouts Samantha Levin and Montenae Roye will also be in action. Levin will compete in the 800 and 1,600-meter runs while Roye will compete in the 400. Both will be running on the Rams’ 4×400- and 4×800-meter relay teams.
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>Other top area athletes scheduled to compete at KU are twin distance standouts Daniel and David Everett of Westminster Christian, distance standout Daniel Mazar of Rockwood Summit and girls distance standout Colleen Quigley of Nerinx Hall. McCluer’s Sherice Williams will also be in the high jump. She has already cleared 5 feet 7 inches this season. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>*Some of the top performers in girls track were on display at the Henle Holmes Invitational at Parkway Central last week. Despite the bad weather conditions on Friday, there were still some top performances at the meet.
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>Ladue High senior standout Samantha Levin was a part of four new meet records at Henle Holmes. Levin won the 200-meter dash on Friday, but she set a meet record in the prelims on Thursday with a time of 24.9 seconds.
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>She also won the 400 in a meet-record 55.1 seconds. Levin’s most exciting moment came in the sprint-medley relay when she turned in an explosive 53.9-second anchor leg to give the Rams the victory in a meet record time of 1:48.21. Levin finished her big meet by running a leg on the first-place 4×400-meter relay team that set a new meet record of 3:56.6. Levin was joined on the 4×400 by Montenae Roye, Emily Warner and Shayla Arnold.
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>Kirkwood won the team girls title with 155 points. The Pioneers used their depth and quality to score in several different events. They won the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×800-meter relays. The 4×800 team won in a time of 9:34.1, which is quite impressive for mid-April. Elizabeth Luciani finished first in the 3,200-meter run in a time of 11:55.6.
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“mso-spacerun: yes;”> West swept both the shot put and discus events. She won the shot put with a heave of 40 feet 2 inches and the discus with a throw of 145-2. Distance running standout Alyssa Rebecca won the 1,600 in a time of 5:09.24.
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>In the boys competition, Bobby Norful of Maplewood won the 100 and 200. Sophomore Ezekiel Elliott won the 110-meter high hurdles. Elliott finished third in the event at last year’s Class 3 state meet as a freshman. University City’s Darion Boure won the triple jump and finished second in the long jump. Boure is the 2010 Class 3 state champion in the triple jump. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>*Cahokia High standout Vernon Carter was one of the individual standouts at the Corey Siebert Invitational at Rockwood Summit. Carter swept the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles. Another double-winner at Summit was Ellis Maise of Timberland, who won the 200 and 400. The best race of the day came in the 1,600 when Daniel Everett of Westminster Christian edged Daniel Mazar of Summit in a dramatic finish where both runners crossed the finish line at virtually the same time. Everett’s winning time was 4:19.08 while Mazar’s time was 4:19.13. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-family: Verdana; layout-grid-mode: line;”>*Host school East St. Louis took home the championship at the Al Joyner Classic, which was held last Friday at Clyde C. Jordan Stadium. Hurdler Phillip Hickman got the Flyers going with a pair of victories in the 110-meter high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles. Hickman led a Flyers’ victory parade that included winners in seven individual events and three relays. Those individual winners included Deonte Hamilton (1,600), Jeremy Nicholson (triple jump), Antonio Pierce (high jump), Demarcus Green (shot put) and Joshua Gates (400). The Flyers swept all three of the sprint relays in finishing with 195 points.
