East St. Louis romps in 25th annual Jackie Joyner-Kersee Relays

One year after coming up just short of the team title at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Relays, the East St. Louis Flyerettes celebrated the Silver Anniversary of the elite event with a dominant performance.

Evangeline Harris won the shot put and placed second behind teammate Jasmine Poole in the discus to lead the way as East St. Louis scored a 43 1/2 point win over Southwestern Conference rival Alton on Saturday at Clyde Jordan Stadium.

Edged by Tennessee power Memphis Westhaven by a half point, a year ago, the Flyerettes ignored tough un-spring like conditions and overcame a stellar field to win the championship.

With brisk icy winds howling between 35 to 40 miles an hour for most of the day, the Flyerettes thrilled a large gathering of the chilled hometown faithful, which included the three-time Olympic Gold medalist herself — Joyner-Kersee — with an impressive performance both on the track and in the field events.

East St. Louis, which took home first place finishes in both the 3,200 meter relays and the 4x100 shuttled hurdle relay, finished with 112 1/2 points, while Alton, getting three wins from Texas A & M recruit LaJarvia Brown, was second with 66 points.

Chicago powers Thornton (66 points), Thornton Fractional North (56 1/2) and Rich South (48) rounded out the top five teams. A third metro-east school in the field of 22 — Althoff — placed 20th with 2 1/2 points.

Harris won the shot put with a throw of 39 feet, 9 1/4 inches, while Poole, one of the best in the state in the discus, had a winning toss of 120-11 1/2 inches in her events. Harris was second, but a distance 14 feet behind the effort of Poole.

The Flyerettes also won the 3,200 relay as Jada Marshall, Onyae Ingram, Precious Hudspeth and Lajeanai Keltee ran a time of 10 minutes, 43.1 seconds, a full four seconds better than Evanston. The Flyerettes 4x100 hurdle shuttle relay team of Destiny Jones, Nia McCaskill, Rokelle Stanley and Keltee finished with a time of 1:09.54 to edge Thornton.

Stanley also placed second in the high jump with a leap of 5-2.

Flyerettes coach Nino Fennoy declined to comment about the meet to the News-Democrat after the meet.

Brown shines again

Less than 18 hours after winning four titles on Friday, Alton senior LaJarvia Brown won three more titles on Saturday to lead the Redbirds to a second place finish.

Brown won the long jump with an effort of 17-5 and the triple jump with a lead of 37-10. Brown also won the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 14.46 seconds.

This story was originally published April 2, 2016 at 8:33 PM with the headline "East St. Louis romps in 25th annual Jackie Joyner-Kersee Relays."