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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
The Alton Redbirds girls' track and field team finished second in the state Saturday at Eastern Illinois. Pictured (from top left) are coach Terry Mitchell, coach Asaki Carr, discus thrower Jewel Wagner, shot put thrower Chayvon Buckingham, coach Bobby Everage, high jumper Katie Mans; and long jump, triple jump, 100-meter and 300-meter hurdler LaJarvia Brown.
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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
Alton Redbird LaJarvia Brown competes in the 300-meter hurdles Saturday in the state finals at Eastern Illinois University.
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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
Alton Redbird sophomore Katie Mans finished seventh with a jump of 5 feet, 6 inches Saturday at Eastern Illinois University at the state finals.
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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
Alton Redbird senior LaJarvia Brown wins a state title and breaks the Illinois state triple jump record with a distance of 42' 1" Saturday at Eastern Illinois University.
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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
Alton Redbird senior LaJarvia Brown claims a state championship in the 100-meter hurdles at Eastern Illinois University Saturday.
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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
The Granite City Warriors state qualifying 4x100 and 4x200 team Saturday at Eastern Illinois University included (from left) Niya Wilson, Andrea Hyde, Ty'Kiaza Jones and Toni Rush.
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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
Granite City Warriors 4x200 relay teammates Niya Wilson hands the baton to Ty'Kiaza Jones en route to a fourth-place finish at the state finals at Eastern Illinois University Saturday. The other two runners are Andrea Hyde and Roni Rush.
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Photo by Jeff Helmkamp
Alton Redbird Chayvon Buckingham finished 12th in class 3A state finals at Eastern Illinois University Saturday.
CHARLESTON – LaJarvia Brown put the Alton Redbirds on the happy trail to a track trophy Saturday during the IHSA girls’ finals at Eastern Illinois University.
They landed in the fast lane.
The Redbirds scored 37 points to finish second, their best showing in school history at the large-school finals. And Brown figured directly in 35 of those points during the high-quality competition at O’Brien Stadium.
“It’s a dream come true,” AHS coach Terry Mitchell said. “By far, it’s the biggest thrill of my 21-year coaching career. It’s what we have worked for all these years.”
Frankfort Lincoln-Way East won its fourth consecutive Class 3A team title, this time with 83 points. Oswego East and Hinsdale Central shared third place with 30 points apiece in the 44th annual finals.
“I gave it everything I had and I’m dead tired. But I’m so happy that we got a team trophy,” said Brown, a 5-foot-3, 120-pound senior bound for Texas A&M.
She did it all in the final high school meet of her career. Here’s what Brown did on the state’s biggest stage at EIU:
• She won the triple jump with a record leap of 42 feet, 1.75 inches. Brown not only snared her third consecutive state triple jump championship, she established an IHSA all-time record with her jump into orbit.
She held the previous mark of 41-6.25, set last year in the Edwardsville Tiger Relays. Brown also smashed the state finals all-time mark of 41-5 that Decatur MacArthur’s Deana Simmons registered in 1996.
• Brown won the 100-meter high hurdles race in 13.89 seconds, giving her four state championships in three seasons.
• She leaped 19-2.5 in the long jump and finished second to Chicago Bloom’s Hannah Morris, the state champ at 19-3.
• Brown then took third in the 300-meter low hurdles in 43.47. Savannah Long of DeKalb won it in 43.34 and Alexis-Pierre-Antoine of Frankfort Lincoln-Way East snared second in 43.41.
“Winning the triple jump and getting the record was a great feeling,” said Brown, fourth in the event after Friday’s preliminaries. “I came out at 7:30 this (Saturday) morning to get some more run-throughs in the jumps and that helped me. My jumps were off a little bit Friday.”
Mitchell added, “I don’t know how much more you could ask out of a person than what LaJarvia did. She was phenomenal.”
Alton’s Katie Mans placed seventh in the high jump at 5-6 and teammate Chayvon Buckingham took 12th in the shot put at 38-9.75 to cap the Redbirds’ successful outing.
“It definitely is LaJarvia’s doing that we got a team trophy,” Mans said. “And that’s amazing because no Alton team has done it.”
The Redbirds placed eighth – their previous best – at state last year, thus they had their sights set on a higher finish. Alton snagged fourth in the Southwestern Conference Meet at Edwardsville and took third in the Rock Island Sectional.
Alton’s guys captured state track titles in 1963-64 and 1969. The last boys’ track team to bring home a team trophy was the 1972 Redbirds, third in the then one-class competition.
Mans’ seventh-place finish gave the Birds their other two points at EIU.
“It was my second-best jump (5-7 is tops) of my career, so I’m thrilled about that,” said Mans, a sophomore. “The competition here was better than it was last year.”
Buckingham savored the opportunity to qualify for state and advance to Saturday’s finals.
“It was a good experience coming here,” Buckingham said. “It could have been better, but just getting to the second day was my biggest thrill. I’m glad I did that. And it was great to have Jewel (Wagner) and coach (Bobby) Everage cheering for me.”
Granite City’s 4x200-meter relay team of Andrea Hyde, TyKiaza Jones, Toni Rush and Niya Wilson finished fourth in 1:43.02. The Warriors, who scored six points, were disqualified in the 4x1 relay for a lane violation.
“We did a good job in the 4x2 and that made up for what happened to us in the 4x1,” said Hyde, a senior. “Mistakes are going to happen and you have to recover from them.
“It was one of better efforts and important to me because it was my last race.”
Wilson is a junior, while Jones and Rush are freshmen.
Defending champion Cahokia and Maple Park Kaneland both scored 53 points to share the Class 2A state title. Springfield Southeast came in third with 40 points. Catlin Salt Fork tallied 52 points to finish first in the Class 1A competition. St. Joseph-Ogden placed second with 42 points and Warrensburg-Latham was third with 40 points.
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