Tigers’ Epenesa sets meet record in discus

Edwardsville’s A.J. Epenesa took advantage of the blustery conditions during the O’Fallon Relays on Friday afternoon to set a new meet record in the discus and help the Tigers to a win in the 12-team event.

Edwardsville was the high-scoring team among the six large schools in the meets’ Gold Division with 170 points, as Mascoutah won the Blue Division with 204 points among the smaller schools.

“You put most of the Southwestern Conference teams together and you’re going to have a heck of a meet,” said O’Fallon coach Ron Koch. “There are probably a half dozen kids here that will be state champions at the end of the season. I’m very happy to see Mascoutah come in and do well, and of course Edwardsville is the defending conference champs and state champs, so we knew they were going to do well coming in.”

Big Day for Epenesa

Epenesa was a state qualifier in the discus and shot put last year as a sophomore for the Tigers, finishing second and ninth, respectively.

The 6-foo-5, 260-pound junior won both events Friday, throwing 53-feet, 4-inches in the shot put and 190-11 in the discus. Epenesa’s effort in the discus broke the meet record of 175-11 set by O’Fallon’s Tom Barrett in 1996.

“It was a pretty windy day, but it was a head-wind so if you can throw it just right it can carry,” Epenesa said. “I had a couple that went high, but I got one throw where I brought it down and it carried further.”

Edwardsville coach Chad Lakatos felt that Epenesa is way of ahead of last year, but still needs to work on his throwing technique.

“He’s still doing a lot of things wrong and goes 190 feet, so there is a lot of room for improvement,” said Lakatos. “Who knows where that mark is going to be by the end of the year, but hopefully it will just keep going up from here.”

Epenesa threw 191-7 at the state meet last year to finish second behind West’s Ricky Nelson, who won the discus with his distance of 194-3. That loss in the state finals is what motivates Epenesa.

“Personally I will be upset with anything less than a state championship,” he said. “You just have to keep working at it because there are a lot of good throwers out there.”

Tigers continue to roll

The defending Class 3A champion Tigers looked strong Friday.

Epenesa’s sweep of the throwing events was only bolstered by a pair of second-place finishes, as Bruce Wachowski was the runner-up in the discus with a throw of 152-9 and Desmond Chappel’s throw of 52-3 in the shot put was good for second.

Edwardsville also got wins in the 4x100 meter and 4x200 meter varsity relays, as its freshman/sophomore teams picked up wins in the 4x200 and 4x800 relays. Throw in a bunch of second-place finishes and the Tigers ended up well ahead of meet runner-up O’Fallon’s 112 points.

Rockwood Summit (106.5), Belleville East (100), Belleville West (86), Collinsville (75) and Granite City (73.5) rounded out the field in the Gold Division.

“We were pretty consistent in the field events and I thought we had a good day on the track,” said Lakatos. “We didn’t have great times, but in these conditions we can’t expect that. They came out and competed and that’s all we can ask for.”

Consistent Mascoutah

The Indians won the Blue Division by winning nine events and placing second in seven for its 204 points, finishing ahead of 138 points by Triad.

“It was a real solid effort,” said coach Jerry Jones. “We had a lot of guys run a lot of races and they won a lot of battles during this meet. Our field events were real good, our distance guys were real good, and our sprint relays were solid too. We haven’t had a performance like this in a long time and it’s a credit to a lot of hard work by our kids.”

The Indians went 1-2 in the high jump as Matthew DeTore and Jonathon Waldroup each cleared 5-10. Junior Zach Wheeler won the shot put and discus for Mascoutah with his throws of 43-9 and 144-0. And juniors Jarred Silvia and Ryan Davis finished first and second in the 300 hurdles to help the Indians to a team victory.

Freeburg (115), Highland (112), Salem (68) and Mt. Vernon (65) rounded out the “Blue” Division.

“We have a big team and we have a deep team, so I think that helps us,” said Jones. “Our program has been building over the last three or four years and I think everything is starting to come together.

“We have to keep getting better, but we had some really good performances today.”

Other top performers

Defending Class 3A 110 hurdles champion William Session won both hurdle events Friday.

Session ran a 14.19 in the 110 hurdles to win the event, and turned in a 39.24 in the 300 hurdles to come in first. Session even anchored East’s hurdle shuttle relay to a victory.

Triad’s Adam Nelson outran Tyler Higgins of Highland in the 100, finishing in 10.77 ahead of Higgins’ 11.19.

Collinsville’s Daniel Brown won the pole vault with a solid effort of 13-6 despite the windy conditions.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 10:57 PM with the headline "Tigers’ Epenesa sets meet record in discus."