The St. Louis metropolitan area is welcoming home four new state championship teams from last weekend’s state track and field meets in Missouri and Illinois.
On the Missouri side, the girls of Cardinal Ritter College set the pace by winning the Class 5 state championship in Jefferson City. It was the Lions third consecutive state championship in what has been a dominant run of success.
Joining Cardinal Ritter in the winner’s circle were the Lutheran-St. Charles girls and the Festus boys’ teams. Lutheran-St. Charles won the Class 3 state championship while Festus won the Class 4 state championship.
On the Illinois side, East St. Louis added another state championship to the trophy case as it won the Class 2A state title. The Flyers were followed by fellow metroeast team Cahokia, who finished in second place.
Cardinal Ritter dominated the Class 5 field as it scored 94 points, which was 31 more than second-place finisher Blue Springs. The Lions got individual state championship performances from sophomore Kyndall Spain in the 300-meter low hurdles and senior Alexis Taylor in the long jump. Spain turned in a winning time of 42.48 seconds in the hurdles while Taylor had a winning jump of 19 feet 6 inches.
The Lions also swept all three sprint relays in convincing fashion. They won the 4×100-meter relay in 47.39 seconds, the 4×200 relay in 1 minute 39.66 seconds and the 4×400-meter relay in 3:48.66. Junior Aniyah Brown finished third in the 100 and 200 while junior Charlye Moody was fourth in the 200 and third in the 400. Spain finished second in the 100-meter-high hurdles, Taylor was fifth in the triple jump and senior Nazariah James was fourth in the triple jump.Â
*ESL takes home another title
East St. Louis scored 79 points in winning the IHSA Class 2A state championship last weekend at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. The Flyers had three state champions and produced points in 10 different events to spread out the scoring.
The two individual state champions were senior Devion Montgomery in the 400-meter dash and senior Demarlynn Taylor in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. Montgomery posted a winning time of 48.67 seconds while Taylor finished first in 37.85 seconds. The Flyers also won the 4×400-meter relay as the team of Quenton Stepney, Taylor, Darris Ivy and Montgomery finished first in 3:18.73.
Several other Flyers other got into the scoring act as Kenneth Buchanon finished eighth in the 100 and fourth in the 200. Montgomery added a fifth-place finish in the 200 to add to his championship in the 400. Stepney finished eighth in the 400 and Taylor was third in the 110-meter-high hurdles.Â
In the field events, Tyeque Baker finished eighth in the triple jump and Andrew Bownes was eighth in the discus. The Flyers also finished second in the 4×100 relay and third in the 4×200 relay.
*Festus brings state title to Jefferson County
Festus brought home another state title to Jefferson County as it won the Class 4 crown with 78 points. Senior Ian Schram was dominant in the distance events as he won the 800- and 1,600-meter runs and finished second in the 3,200-meter run. Senior Ahrmad Branch was excellent in the field as he won the triple jump and finished third in the long jump. The Purdue football recruit posted a winning effort in the triple jump of 45 feet 3 inches. The Tigers also posted second-place finishes in the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×800.
*Lutheran-St. Charles wins first state title
The Lutheran St. Charles Cougars won the Class 5 girls state championship in basketball during the winter and added their first state championship in girls track last weekend. Sophomore Elle North finished first in the 400 and finished second in the 200. Sophomore Kennedy Williams was second in the 100-meter-high hurdles and fifth in the 300-meter low hurdles. The Cougars also won the state title in the 4×200 and were fifth in the 4×400.
