The Cahokia High girls’ track and field team has fought through injuries all year.
This weekend during the 43rd Annual IHSA Class 2A State Championships in Charleston (Illinois), the dynamic duo of Mariya Hudson and Raynesha Lewis led the Comanches to the state championship. Cahokia’s girls made history last year by winning their first state title and they followed up with another championship performance this season.
Hudson and Lewis combined for all of Cahokia’s 61 points as it held off perennial power Chicago Morgan Park (57 points) to bring the girls title back to the 618 area code for the second consecutive year.
Hudson had a Jackie Joyner-Kersee sort of day Saturday at O’Brian Stadium on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. Hudson won three gold medals and swept the three sprints. She won the 100-meter dash with a winning time of 12.2 seconds. She also won the 200 in a time of 24.64. Hudson also won the 400 with a personal best time of 54.79. She also placed third in the long jump to give her a total of 36 points.
Her teammate Lewis got the Cahokia lady thinclads off and running by winning the long jump with a leap of 18 feet 10 3/4 inches. Lewis won the state title on her third and final jump of the event. She had scratched on her first two attempts, but captured the title on her last try with her mom Kim, her uncle Bennie Lewis, and the rest of her family cheering her on. Lewis also added a second gold medal in the 100-meter high hurdles and a fourth-place finish in the triple jump to give her 25 points on the day.
“That jump was for my late uncle Roland Lewis,” said the soft-spoken Raynesha on Monday. “It’s been a tough few weeks for my family. My teammates and I wanted to win another state title for Cahokia as well, and we did it!”
Scott’s notes
East St. Louis Senior High school’s Aaliah Herring won the Shot Put title with a toss of 43-1. The Flyerettes’ senior is one of the best girl shot putters in the country.
Flyers football coach Darren Sunkett didn’t send any players to the Demetrius Johnson free HBCU football combine two weeks ago at Gateway Tech, despite the fact that former Flyers great and Alabama A&M assistant coach Kevin Ramsey was in attendance.
This is why some Flyers’ alumni and players are grumbling at the current state of the program. The Flyers finished 7-5 last season. One of those losses was an embarrassing loss to Belleville West and the prestigious Bell that’s awarded to the winning team.
More on the state of the football program in the near future …
Congratulations to the new East St. Louis boys’ basketball coach Phillip Gilbert, who was married during the holiday weekend. Good luck to Phillip this year.
