Straying from his normal comfort zone of the 100 and 200 meters, Javaughn Tabb won the 400 while Kraig Appleton and Jon Edwards also posted convincing victories as the Flyers rolled to a 23-point win Thursday at Granite City High School.
Still not 100 percent, Tabb was held out of the 100 and 200 by Flyers coach Roscoe Whitfield, then recorded a time of 49.3 seconds to win the 400.
Appleton recovered from a false start in the 110 high hurdles to win the 300 intermediate hurdles in 37.4, while Edwards won the discus with a throw of 149 feet, 8 inches for the Flyers, who finished with 148 points.
"Javaughn is still battling an injury, and so we didn't want to take a chance with him in the 100 and 200 meters," Whitfield said. "Plus, we wanted to see some of the kids in some other events."
"I was pleased at how we performed tonight, heading into the sectional meet next week."
Other Flyers winning SWC titles included Evan Johnson in the 200 and Ryan Miller in the 110 high hurdles.
East St. Louis also won the 800 and 1,600 relays.
Belleville East placed second with 125 1/2 points, followed by Belleville West with 105 points. O'Fallon had 99 1/2 and Granite City had 79 points to round out the top five schools.
"This was not an easy victory," Whitfield said. "I've said it all year that this (Southwestern) conference had several very good teams in it this year and was as balanced maybe as it has ever been before. We had a good night."
As did East, which upset the Flyers in the 400 relay and got wins from Roger Jones in the long jump (21-11) and Daryl Rice in the high jump (6-4).
West senior Jon Cripe continues to close out his high school career with a bang.
Cripe was the lone individual to win two events, claiming the 800 and 1,600.
The Maroons' Travis Manning won the triple jump.
Granite City's Diante Estell won the 100 meters. Teammate Aaron Werths won the 3,200.
O'Fallon's win came from Anthony Garlisi in the shot put.
Contact reporter Dean Criddle at 239-2665 or dcriddle@bnd.com.
