Track heats up with district meets
Berths to state championships on the line
Of the St. Louis American
The track and field season gets real serious this weekend as schools on the Missouri side get ready for district competition. Meanwhile, the girls in the Metro East will compete in sectional meets around the state of Illinois with berths to the state championship on the line.
Saturday’s Class 4 district meets involving area teams will be held at Oakville, Rockwood Summit, Parkway Central, Parkway North and Columbia Rock Bridge. The Class 3 schools will be competing at Perryville, Union, MICDS and Mexico. The top four finishers at each of these sites will advance to the sectionals next Saturday.
The Class 2 district meets will be held at Festus and Orchard Farm with the Class 1 meet involving area school Wellston will be held in Fulton. The top four finishers at these meets will qualify for the Class 1-2 State Championships next weekend in Jefferson City.
One of the top district meets to watch this weekend will be the Class 3, District 3 meet at MICDS, especially on the girls’ side. It promises to be a star-studded affair with the likes of freshman phenom Alishea Usery of McCluer South-Berkeley; Ladue’s powerful team that includes Azraa Rounds, Orie Ibe and Ysatis Williams; LaShayla Bell of University City; Kim Prather of Lutheran North; and many other talented athletes. MICDS, Jennings and Clayton also figure to bring something to the table as well.
On the Flyerette
The East St. Louis Flyerettes prepared for its upcoming sectional meet in Salem by racing to another Southwestern Conference championship last week in Alton. The Flyerettes are young, but they are talented and very deep. They scored 196 points, with included seven first-place finishes.
Individual winners included April Anderson in the long jump, Brittany Allen in the 800, Shannon Fenton in the 100-meter high hurdles and Ambrea Brimmage in the triple jump.
Second-place Edwardsville will head to Springfield for its sectional meet. Like East Side, the Tigers figure to load the bus to Charleston, Ill. next weekend, which is the site of the IHSA State Championships. The Tigers got first-place finishes from freshman Erin Stepherson in the 400 and senior Tamara McCaskill in the high jump.
Local notables
Here are some of the stellar performers from last weekend’s conference meets around the area.
Lajada Baldwin (Central VPA): Won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes at the Public High League meet at Gateway Tech. Her winning times were 12.0 in the 100, 24.7 in the 200 and 58.71 in the 400.
Tiffany Jackson (Gateway Tech): Won the 100-meter high hurdles, 300-meter low hurdles and ran on two first-place relays at the Public High League meet at Gateway Tech.
Paul Chaney (SLUH): Won the 100 (10.4), 200 (21.6) and 400 (50.0) at the Metro Catholic Conference meet at CBC.
Lynetta Ragsdale (Normandy): Won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.6 and the 300-meter low hurdles in 46.1 at the Suburban North Conference meet at Hazelwood West.
David Reid (Eureka): Won the 100 and 200 and anchored the Wildcats’ 4×100-meter relay team to a victory at the Suburban South Conference meet at Parkway North.
Rufus Triggs (Kirkwood): Won the 400 and anchored the Pioneers 4×200 and 4×400 relays teams to victories at the Suburban West Conference meet at Fox.
Brandon Deloney (Parkway South): Won the 100 and 200-meter dashes at the Suburban West Conference meet at Fox.
