Stephens takes over coaching reins at Belleville West

Taking over a high school track and field program is never easy. Taking over one that has been as successful as the Belleville West girls program has been in recent years is one that longtime assistant Sally Stephens faces in ‘2016.

A Maroons assistant for the past 10 years, Stephens’ first season in charge will be one in which West will be counting heavily on a few quality upper class athletes and several talented but unproven freshmen and sophomores if it is to be competitive in the always-strong Southwestern Conference.

But through two indoor meets, Stephens likes what she sees from the Maroons.

“Honestly, we’ve done better than expected in our indoor meets. We’re very a very young team this year. We’re heavy with freshmen and sophomores and very light in the junior and senior areas,’’ Stephens said. “We didn’t really know what to expect, but in our first two indoor meets, we’ve exceeded our expectations.

“We’re anxious for our outdoor season to begin. But this is a great group of kids, which is working hard everyday.’’

The Maroons, whose first major competition will be on March 26 at the Southwestern Illinois Relays at Edwardsville High School, have long been one of the track powers in Southern Illinois. Under coach Paul James, who resigned following the 2015 season, West won the state championship in 2009, then placed second behind Southwestern Conference power Edwardsville in 2012.

In 2016, and with a whole new coaching staff to help her, Stephens will attempt to keep the Maroons’ tradition of excellence alive

“Coach (Paul) James did a wonderful job of building this program and taking it to the next step. We want to maintain that level and continue to build up on it,’’ Stephens said. “The toughest part of being a new head coach? Picking a whole new coaching staff. And I feel we have a very good staff and of course more paperwork. But I’m having lot of fun working with these kids.’’

Not deep in experience, the Maroons do return several outstanding sprinters in senior Monique Shine, juniors Kameron Frazier and Dejah Campbell and sophomore Teonna Davis. All four will be keys on the Maroons sprint relay teams, while Davis and Shine will be mainstays in the 100 and 200 meter events.

Campbell could be one of the elite 300 meter hurdle athletes in the Southwestern Conference.

“Monique (Shine) has come in and done a great job. She looks a lot stronger, and being a senior has stepped forward and shown ownership as one of the leaders of this team,’’ Stephens said. “Dani (Meitzeheimer) is another one of our seniors — and she will compete in the shot put and discus — who has also shown good leadership on this young team.

“Dani had a throw of 35 feet, 5 inches at our first meet and that’s a big improvement over last year. We’re looking for her to build on that the rest of the season.”

Sophomores Brittney Walker and Kimberly McWherter also return and should help in the open running and in relay events.

Freshman Kelvi Searcy has been impressive in the hurdles and will start the season as the Maroons’ No. 1 athlete in the 100 meter hurdles, while another freshman, Sophia Sierra leads a limited number of distance runners.

Walker will also long jump and could see time in other events, while sophomore Alexis Brown (high jump) and senior Dierrah Reese (shot put and discus) will also provide some much needed points.

But Stephens is hoping that even more freshmen and sophomores step up.

“We were limited in the number of girls we could take to the indoor meets so the first couple of outdoor meets we’re going to move some girls around, try them in some different events and see what we have,’’ Stephens said. “I think we’re going to be alright. We’re going to be just fine.’’

Belleville West boys

Few, if any Class 3A programs in the state can match the success of the Maroons in the past seven years. Led by an amazing amount of success in the relay events, West has placed in the top six of the state finals six times in the last seven years and brought a whole bunch of individual state medals home from Charleston in that time.

And while coach Patton Segraves may not have the depth in his group of sprinters that he has had in the past, the former Harrisburg and University of Kentucky standout may have one of the top individual sprinters in the state to build around in senior Deshon Buchanan.

Now in his fourth season with the Maroons, Buchanan already has five state track meet medals in his possession with the hopes of at least a couple more this season.

Buchanan has already broken the school record in the 400 meters — finishing with a time of 49.5 seconds — in his only indoor meet this season.

“As many top sprinters as we’ve had here, Deshon is the first one to earn an individual medal when he placed seventh in the 200 meters last year,’’ Segraves said. “Then this year he comes out and in his first 400 meters, breaks Jeremy Randolph’s school record by a half-second.

“I think his best event is the 400 meters, but he’s a heck of a 200 meter runner as well. He’s a senior with a lot of high goals this season.’’

Senior Anthony Lewis was on the Maroons 400 meter relay team that placed second in the state meet a year ago, while another senior in Tanario Able and sophomores LaMondre Carter and Ni’el Hill have also shown the ability to run on either the 400 or 800 meter relays.

Segraves also has solid runners in the 3,200 meter relay and in the 1,600 and 3,200 meter events — many of who ran on his cross country team in the fall.

Senior Nick Ernst and junior Brian Gichuru are the best of the distance runners, but also available to run in the middle distance and distance events is senior Hunter Cason and sophomores Jimmy Reed and Lucas Robben.

“We’re excited about our 4x800 meter relay team,’’ Segraves said. “Nick (Ernst) is a great 800 meter runner, and as a team we ran 8:20 the other night. We’ve got six guys there we can mix and match, and four of them are capable of going 2:10 or better in the 800. Cason went 2:01 the other night.

“Those kids have a goal of running at the state meet. It’s as tall task. But its a pretty determined and talented group.”

In the field events are senior Austin Blakeslee in the pole vault, Ian Parker has already gone 45 feet in the triple jump and will also be the Maroons’ best in the long jump, while Kenny Nesbitt (shot put) and junior Stacey Ware (discus) are others Segraves is counting on.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Stephens takes over coaching reins at Belleville West."