East St. Louis, O’Fallon win at Southwestern Illinois Relays

East St. Louis track coach Barry Malloyd didn’t have to wait long to find out it was going to be a good day for the Flyers on Saturday at the Southwestern Illinois Relays. But Malloyd did have to wait until the end to see if was doing to be a winning day.

Trailing defending Class 3A state champion Edwardsville by half point entering the final event — the 4x400 meter relay — the Flyers simply ran away from the field as they captured the first major outdoors meet of the season on a picture perfect spring afternoon at Edwardsville High School.

Offsetting the brilliance of Edwardsville junior A.J. Epenesa in the discus and the shot put, the Flyers won six relay titles and three individual championships. But it wasn’t until East St. Louis sprinted across the finish line with a time of 3 minutes, 21.97 seconds in the 4x400 meter relay, a full eight seconds better then runner-up McCluer South-Berkeley from surburban St. Louis before it could start celebrating its title.

“It’s been a long time. A very long time since we’ve won here,” Malloyd said. “The turning point for us today came early when we were able to win the 4x110 meter shuttle relay. You could see that after we that event that the kids got excited and fired up. We were able to carry that over for the rest of the day.”

The East St. Louis thinclads also won the 400, 800 and 3,200 meter along with the sprint medley as it finished with 120 points. Edwardsville, getting wins from Epenesa, an Iowa University football recruit, in the shot put (53 feet 5 inches) and a record throw of 185 feet, 3 inches in the discus, was second with 113 1/2 points.

Rockwood Summit (Mo.) placed third with 67 points, while O’Fallon (66 points) and Collinsville (59) rounded out the top five teams.

While East St. Louis won the boys division, the top Class 3A girls team in southern Illinois — O’Fallon — romped to an easy win in the girls division. The Panthers (101 points) won for the second straight year at Edwardsville, posting a 14-point victory over East St. Louis.

The East St. Louis boys team received wins from Kenny Roberson in the long jump, Marlowe Mosley (11.19 seconds) in the 100 meters and Delano Anderson in the 300 meter hurdles (38.83 seconds). Anderson is the son of former Flyers great Detar Anderson.

“Mosley winning the 100 and Delano (Anderson) taking the 300 meter hurdles were both big for us,’’ Malloyd said. “This was a nice way to start the season. Hopefully we can build on this and continue to improve.’’

Second in the state finals in the discus a year ago, Epenesa looked to be in midseason form on Saturday. The top ranked sophomore a year ago, Epenesa, using a new and improved throwing form, shattered the meet record set of just over 151 feet set by former Belleville West standout Pierre Gee-Tucker with his throw of 185 feet on Saturday.

“Honestly, I’ve only been practicing for three or four days and we’ve changed my style to where I’m getting more speed in the ring,” Epenesa said. “So to come out and throw the discus that far with so little practice is good.

“My goals are to go over 200 feet in the discus and I believe the school record is 57 feet and something by Vincent Valentine. He’s a great athlete and a great person who is going to be playing in the NFL. I’d like to break his record.

Other local athletes winning individual titles on Saturday included Chris Conrad of O’Fallon in the 1,600 meters (4:24), Bailey Crone of Collinasville in the high jump (6-4) and Daniel Brown of Collinsville in the pole vault (12 feet).

Girls

The most talented and deepest girls track and field team south of Springfield, the O’Fallon Panthers barely broke a sweat as they scored a 14 point win over East St. Louis in the prestigious first major outdoor meet of the season.

Showing their depth in both the sprint and distance relay events, the Panthers won the 400 meter relay, the 3,200 meter relay and the distance medley. O’Fallon, featuring a large group of outstanding sprinters in the junior class was also favored to win the 800 meter relay, but a dropped baton prevented yet another title.

“If you are going to drop a baton, better it happen in March then in May at the state meet. We have such a good group of sprinters and while most of them are in the junior class, they’ve all been though this now for two full years. If dropping the baton teaches us that we need to keep our focus a little better then that’s fine,” O’Fallon coach Neil James said. “I thought we looked very good in the 400 meter relay and again we’ve also got a good group of distance runners who have been through this as well.

“We had a good little quad (four team) meet earlier this week and so this was a godo way to start the season. With the teams that were here with East St. Louis, Cahokia, Belleville East and others this is great competition for this early in the season.”

Alton, getting wins from Texas A & M recruit LaJarvia Brown in the triple jump, long jump and 300 meter hurdles — placed third in the team race with 84 1.2 points, followed by two-time defending Class 2A state champion Cahokia (74 points) and Edwardsville (73).

Other individual champions included Tamar Mosby of Belleville East in the high junp (5 feet 4 inches), Jazzmine Poole of East St. Louis in the shot put and Edwardsville’s Gabriella Romano in the pole vault.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 8:40 PM with the headline "East St. Louis, O’Fallon win at Southwestern Illinois Relays."