Highland High School girls, boys track teams place 1st at Granite City relays
A trip to Granite City High School on Friday, May 21, for the Warrior Relays turned out to be an outstanding day for the Highland boys track team.
The HHS boys team won the event with 103 points in their first relay meet win of the season. In the process, the outcome left Highland coach Bob Vance, who is retiring at the end of the season, feeling pretty good about his team’s progress.
“We were third in the Jerseyville relay, and we’ve had some good performances throughout the season. We’ve just run into some tougher teams, but this was a total team effort tonight,” Vance said.
HHS started strong by winning the pole vault as Andrew Capelle placed first (10-6). Ethan Smith placed second (9-6), Cole Baisden was third (9-0), and Ben Capelle finished fourth (8-0).
In the shot put, Bulldogs dominated as well with Logan Chandler winning first place (12.50 meters), Carson Baer taking second place (9.93 meters), Nate Tetreau placing third (8.23 meter) and Justin Wakeley claiming fourth place (7.23).
In the running events, Highland won the 4x1,600 as Cole Baisden, Dallas Mancinas, Smith, and Easton Rosen took first place.
The Bulldogs also excelled in the high hurdle shuttle relay as Capelle, Cole Reid, Tetrau, and Braden Wakeley won the race with a first place showing.
Rosen also made his presence felt in the middle distance events, winning the open 1,600 meter run with a time of 4:44. Mason Steinbeck turned in a personal best of 4:51 to capture second place.
A strong performance in the 4x800 relay also bolstered the Bulldogs cause as Steinbeck, Rosen, Kyle Molitor and Smith led Highland to a first place finish.
Rosen was also honored as Male Athlete of the meet as he finished the day with three first place finishes and one second place finish.
“Overall, it was a great effort, and I think we saw it (the meet) as an opportunity to win a meet for the old coach,” Vance said. “This (season) is it, and I think they wanted to make sure they sent me out with a bang. And, of course, we’ve still got another month to keep working and getting better and we’re going to see if we can keep improving.”
Highland girls also take 1st place
A long and wild evening of track and field ended up going very well for the Highland Lady Bulldogs track team Friday, May 21.
Led by strong performances from Josie Hapack and Lydia Hadowsky, HHS rolled to victory in the Warrior Relays at Granite City High School with 160 first place points. Highland was followed by Mascoutah in second place, Granite City in third place and Jerseyville in fourth place with Staunton and Madison rounding out the top five finishers in the meet.
“The girls were outstanding,” Highland coach Doug Bradley said. “They took care of business on a warm and breezy afternoon. It was pretty much the kind of effort and focus I’ve seen out of them the whole season. The upperclassmen are energized by their younger teammates and their younger teammates are getting valuable support and teaching from their elders. It’s been a really successful team throughout the season. “
Hapack, who was voted Outstanding Athlete of the Meet, led HHS with a big day in the throwing events as she threw for over 123 feet to win the discus, besting the previous event record by 20 feet. Hapack threw over 30 feet to lead the Bulldogs in the shotput as well.
Other key performance for HHS girls
Hadowsky shined in the pole vault as she vaulted a personal best 9-foot-6 and had the top leap for HHS high jumpers, clearing the bar with a leap of 4-10.
Olivia Wilke made her mark in the 100 meters and the triple jump. Wilke ran a blistering 13.6 to win the 100 meters and then helped the team win the triple jump with a jump of over 32 feet.
The Lady Bulldogs also fared well in the shuttle hurdle relays winning both the 100 shuttle hurdle relay and the 309 hurdle relay races.
In the relay events, HHS had a dominant outing winning the 4x800 and 4x1,600 relays and placing second in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.
Julia Loeh tuned in a strong quarter-mile split to help the Lady Bulldogs sprint medley relay team move from fifth place into a third place finish.
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 1:41 PM.