Highland boys track team pushes for improvement at Collinsville Invitational

Saturday, May 7, was a day of competition and trying to get better for the Highland boys track team at the Collinsville Invitational.

This wasn’t a day of counting team success but rather striving to gain personal improvement in as many events as possible across the board for HHS.

Highland finished 27th overall in the nearly 30-team field at Collinsville High School, but that result was not the ultimate goal as the Bulldogs prepared for the Mississippi Valley Conference Championships, which took place Wednesday, May 11, at Waterloo High School.

“Triad and Mascoutah are two (IHSA Class) 2A teams and with them being in our conference it’s hard not to compare (schools). They’re two of the best 2A teams in the state and the rest of the teams (in the field) were 3A teams but there were a lot of big (individual) improvements I saw throughout the day. And it was exciting to see that,” Highland coach Joe Shannon said.

Sophomore Ben Capelle led the Bulldogs top performers as he placed seventh in the pole vault with a then-personal record height of 3.70 meters.

“It’s nice to see that. Ben’s a hard-working kid and loves the pole vault and this was the perfect time of year for him,” Shannon said. “The Collinsville Invitational was probably the first time that we had good pole vault weather all year for him.”

Fellow sophomore Phoenix Lewis placed 21st overall with a height of 2.43 meters.

In the sprint events, junior Paul Graham turned in a PR of 11.55 in the 100-meter dash for 15th place — just one spot behind Edwardsville’s DeShawn Larson.

“I’m so excited to see what he can do by the end of this year,” Shannon said of Graham. “The (sectional) qualifying is 11.1 for the 100 and that’s a lot to take on from now to then but we’re just starting to tap his potential.”

Rory Gallagher and Rome Wallace fared decently in the 200-meter dash as Gallagher placed 23rd with a PR of 25.08 and Wallace finished 27th, posting a PR of 25.66.

Additionally, Cameron Pace had a solid day in the middle distance as he finished 25th in the 1,600-meter run with a PR of 5:00.98.

“He was right around his PR and he basically hit the PR he’s run this year with his 800 splits in the mile ... it wasn’t a bad day for Cam,” Shannon said.

Dallas Mancinas also stepped up in the distance events as he ran a PR of 2:05 in his 200-meter split of the 4x800 relay and then came back and took 11th in the 800 meters thanks to a PR time of 2:05.99.

Other solid performances for HHS

In the 3,200, Cole Basden set a season record taking ninth place, running a 10:52.70.

“He and Cam Pace are my guys that I expect will have a shot in the conference (meet) and sectionals and I’m excited to see those two work with each other. And I think Cole did a really good job,” Shannon said.

Cole Parsons and Ethan Hollenkamp rounded out Highland’s other top field event performers, finishing 27th with a 10.46-meter jump and a 10.07-meter jump to take 28th in the long jump.

Results from the MVC meet

At the league meet, Highland finished fourth with 75 points behind first place Triad (184 points), Mascoutah (155 points) and Civic Memorial (104 points).

Highlighting the day for Highland was Capelle’s second-place finish in the pole vault with a PR of 3.60 meters.

This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 12:51 AM.