O’Fallon posts narrow win at Belleville West Invitational

With a minor glitch in the scoring system holding up the final tabulation of points, O’Fallon girls track and field coach Neil James left Belleville West High School late Friday not knowing if the Panthers had won the 10th annual Lady Maroons Invitational.

But it didn’t matter.

“Whether we won the title or not tonight, it really doesn’t matter at this early part of the season. What I care about is what our girls learned about how they performed tonight and did we improve in our events,” James said. “If we did those two things it was a successful night.”

And thanks to second-place finishes from Jasmine Spearman in the discus and Caitlyn Clinton in the 800 meters, not only was it a successful night for O’Fallon but it was a winning one.

The Panthers, who failed to win a single individual title, used their depth to finish with 132 points, 33 more than Southwestern Conference rival Edwardsville as they won for the second straight week.

O’Fallon also won the Southwestern Illinois Relays at Edwardsville a week ago.

Spearman led the way with her second place finish in the discus with a throw of 117 feet, 11 feet less than the top ranked Class 2A athlete in the state in that event — Allison Richter of Triad.

Clinton, one of the emotional leaders of the Panthers, was second to Lori Cashdollar of Edwardsville in the 800 meters.

“Caitlyn was Caitlyn. She’s just so consistent,” James said, “And Jasmine (Spearman) throwing 117 feet tonight was great to see. That is a state qualifying throw and for her to do it this early is just excellent.”

Cashdollar’s win in the 800 meter race led the way for Edwardsville, which also got victories from Payton Flowers in the 1,600 meters and Julianna Determan in the 3,200 meters.

While O’Fallon scored a narrow win in the team competition, the race for the top individual performance proved to be no contest on an unusually chilly and windy spring evening Friday at Belleville West High School.

Brown takes four titles

As she has done so many times during the past three years, Alton senior LaJarvia Brown simply stole the show. Headed to Texas A & M University later this summer where she will compete for the perennial national track and field power Aggies, Brown won four events, breaking her own records in the long jump and triple jump, and also taking titles in the 100 and 300 meter hurdles.

Using a strong cold wind at her back, Brown bettered her 19-foot jump effort in the long jump of a year ago,with an effort of 19-4 on Friday. After taking home the title in the 100 meter hurdles, the Redbirds three-time state champion dashed to the other end of the artificial turf field at Belleville West, to win the triple jump with an effort of of 40-10 1/2.

Brown’s previous mark was 39-9 1/2 set a year ago. The performance on Friday is even more impressive when considering it game in 25-30 mph winds and with temperatures falling throughout the night.

“I knew it was going to be cold. I was prepared for that. What I wasn’t expecting was the winds to be as strong as it was. It was blowing 25 tp 30 miles an hour. But it did help me with the long jump,” Brown said. “I didn’t want to go to hard. I’ve got the JJK (Jackie Joyner-Kersee) Meet tomorrow (Saturday).”

Belleville East senior Tamar Mosby also struggled with the wind but still managed to win the high jump with an effort of 5 feet.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 11:19 PM with the headline "O’Fallon posts narrow win at Belleville West Invitational."