BETHALTO – The East St. Louis Flyers are sectional champions in impressive fashion.
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They competed in the IHSA Class 2A Bethalto (Civic Memorial) Boys Track and Field Sectional on Wednesday afternoon at Hauser Field and won the event with a team score of 127 points. The next closest teams were Cahokia (93) and Triad (79).
In doing so, East Side qualified many athletes for next week’s state track meet at Eastern Illinois University.
The day started strong out in the field, specifically the jumping events.
Senior Shamond McClain and junior Tyreke Baker both advanced in the long jump. McClain won the event with a mark of 6.86 meters while Baker was third at 6.71 meters. The two went first and third again in the triple jump. McClain marked 13.71 meters and Baker jumped 13.29 meters. They’ll compete at the state meet in both events.
Freshman Darrion Bradley qualified in the high jump, taking second place by clearing 1.92 meters. It was a PR for him as well. He later qualified in the 110-meter hurdles, taking second place with a time of 15.09 seconds, another PR.
Senior Elmo Gillian was fifth in the shot put with a throw of 15.21 meters, which was good enough to qualify him for state in the event.
When 4:30 p.m. came around and track events started, the Flyers qualified in the first two relays. The 4x800-meter relay opened the day’s races, and East St. Louis took second with a time of 8:11.25. That team was made up of Demarcus Coleman, Darius Ivy, Mark Samual, and Chris Wagner.
One of the early highlights of the day was the 4x100-meter relay.
It was a three-way photo finish between Triad (41.83 seconds), East St. Louis (41.86 seconds), and Cahokia (41.90 seconds), all three running season bests, all three being top-25 times in the state.
East Side consisted of Jayden McCallum, McClain, Melvin Sledge, and Durand Sain. They ran a new Illinois No. 18 time to qualify for the event.
The same three teams podiumed in the 4x200-meter relay, and all three of them qualified. Cahokia won in 1:27.06, running a season-best that’s a new Illinois No. 3 time. The Flyers were second at 1:30.01 and followed closely by Triad at 1:30.52.
East Side’s relay was made up of Zavion Brownlee, McCallum, McClain, and Sledge.
A familiar combination of Ivy, Sledge, Sain, and McCallum won the final event of the day, the 4x400-meter relay in a time of 3:19.42, a new season best that set a top-five time in Illinois to qualify for state.
The Flyers also dominated the open sprinting events.
They qualified two more in the 400-meter. Ivy won the event with a PR time of 48.98 seconds while Sain was fifth, also running a PR, with a time of 50.39 seconds. Ivy also qualified himself in the 800-meter with a sixth-place time of 2:00.11.
Baker ran PR in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.87 seconds, which qualified him for state. He was between two Cahokia runners, Reginald Griffin in first (39.63 seconds) and Nigel Gooden in third (40.35 seconds).
Sledge and McCallum both qualified for state in the 200-meter with times of 22.27 seconds and 22.31 seconds, respectively.
The team now heads to the ‘Big Blue Track’ in search of a third straight state championship and 15th overall.
