Mascoutah upsets Triad to win MVC championship

The youth and pure speed of the Mascoutah Indians proved to much for even Triad senior Allison Richter to overcome on Thursday at the Mississippi Valley Conference Girls Track and Field championship at Waterloo High School.

Freshmen DeJae Hudson blazed to a winning time of 17.49 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles while freshman Cameron Barnes put the finishing touch on a memorable night for the Indians by winning the 200 meters as Mascoutah shocked Triad to win the title in the rugged MVC.

Sophomore Sydney Brown won the 100 meters in a time of 12.74 seconds while standout Mackenzie Dixon outkicked Abigail Richter of Triad to win the 800 meter championship for the Indians.

Mascoutah finished with 115 points, seven more than second-place Triad and 15 more points than third-place Waterloo. The Bulldogs received championships from Jenna Schwartz in the 3,200 meters and Genna Bourgeios in the high jump.

Triad was led by senior Allison Richter who won the shot put (42 feet, 2 1/2 inches), long jump (16 feet, 9 1/2 inches) and discus (135 feet, 7 inches). Twin sister Abigail Richter took the triple jump with a leap of 34 feet, 3 inches.

Highland senior Allison Zobrist won the 1,600 meters in 5 minutes, 32 seconds. Zobrist has been bothered by foot and leg injuries for much of the past two years.

Cahokia Conference boys

Freshman Brendan Ming won the long jump and triple jump titles while junior Charlie Parrish won the 1,600 and 3,200 meter championships as Freeburg nipped Central for the team title in the boys division in the annual event hosted by Freeburg High School.

Ming won the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 5 inches, then took the triple jump with an effort of 42 feet, 11 inches for the Midgets, who finished with 135 points. The Central thinclads were second with 134 points.

Parrish, the Belleville News-Democrat Class 1A cross country runner of the year last fall, won the 1,600 meters in a time of 4 minutes, 46.7 seconds and the 3,200 meters in 10:27.1.

The other event winner for Freeburg was Drew Wilkerson in the 800 meters.

Central was led by a brilliant effort from Ben Rakers in the 110-meter hurdles (15.4 seconds) and the 300-meter hurdles in 41.1 seconds.

Other individual event winners included Ethan Snow in the high jump (6 feet) and Josh Thompson in the 400 meters (52.2) of Columbia; Wesclin’s Blake Laird in the pole vault (14 feet, 3 inches), Michael Cornwell in the discus (132 feet), Jacob Brown (47 feet, 4 inches), Jason Robinson in the 100 meters (11 seconds) and 200 meters (23.3).

Wesclin was third with 116 points while Columbia rounded out the top four teams with 92 points.

Cahokia Conference girls

Freeburg senior Jenna Kennedy won the shot put and discus events while three Midgets teammates also won individual championships to lead the way in a 93 point win over Central.

Kennedy hurled the discus 111 feet and won the shot put with a throw of just over 33 feet for the Midgets who also got wins in the pole vault from Stephanie Jacobs (11 feet), Kristen Collier in the 400 meters (1:03.4) and Kayla Whitworth in the 800 meters (2:32).

Second place Central was led by Abbie Horstmann in the high jump (4 feet 10 inches), Jessie Hempen in the 100 meters (13.22) and Paige Brueggemann in the 200 meters (28.22).

Freeburg finished with 198 points, compared to 105 for the Cougars. Lebanon, getting an amazing four wins from junior Casey Berberich, was third with 78 points. Berberich won the long jump with an effort of 17 feet 2 inches and the triple jump with a leap of 34 feet, 8 3/4 inches.

Berberich also took the 100 meter hurdles (16.1 seconds) and 300 meter hurdles (47.2).

Red Bud senior Keri Burmester won the 1,600 meters in 5 minutes, 29 seconds and the 3,200 meters in 11 minutes 59 seconds.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Mascoutah upsets Triad to win MVC championship."