Epenesa’s record throw helps Edwardsville win Granite City Invitational

Edwardsville senior AJ Epenesa shattered his own record in the discus and added a title in the shot put on Saturday as the Tigers earned an easy win at the Granite City Boys Track and Field Invitational.

One year after setting a new Illinois state track meet mark of 205-feet-11-inches and also having one of the top throws in the nation at 206-feet-5-inches, Epenesa cleared 200 feet for the first time this spring — hurling the discus 204 feet 1 inch on Saturday to break the mark of 193 feet 9 inches a yar ago. The throw is the longest in the state this year.

“It was a good throw. I’ve been working on getting in the groove again and it felt good to be able to power one out there over 200 feet,” Epenesa said. “I’m pleased. I’m about where I want to be at this stage of the year.”

Epenesa added a throw of 53 feet 8 inches to win the shot put and along with strong efforts from several teammates helped the Tigers finish with 133 points and defeat six-time defending Class 2A state champion Cahokia (99 points) and Mascoutah (97) for the title.

Freshman Jack Pifer added a win in the 3,200 meters for Edwardsville, which also won the 4,00, 800 and 3,200 meter relay titles. Mascoutah ended the Tigers hopes of sweeping the relays, when it won the 1,600 meter championship.

Pifer, who is the younger brother of former Tigers state champion and University of Colorado All-American distance runner Stephen Pifer, ran a time of 10:12 to post an eight second win.

“Jack went out and ran a good race,” Edwardsville coach Chad Lakatos said. “Overall we moved some kids around today and we used some different combinations in the relays. But I was pleased. I thought we had a good overall, team effort.’’

Epenesa was chosen as the top field event athlete of the meet, while Belleville West senior Ricky Berry won the top track athlete award. Berry won the 110 high hurdles and won the 300 hurdles with a personal best of 39.59 seconds.

Second place Cahokia received wins from Chris Stanley (800 meters), Marquis Murray (200 meters) and Brandon Roberson (400 meters). Granite City got a pair of wins from Torrey Deal in the triple jump and long jump, while Andrew O’Keefe won the 1,600 meters.

Triad sophomore Jadon Elliott won the pole vault.

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Epenesa’s record throw helps Edwardsville win Granite City Invitational."