Cahokia, East and East Side are among teams entered
BY DEAN CRIDDLE – News-Democrat
BELLEVILLE — Always one of the top early season showcases of track and field talent in Southern Illinois, the 2010 Belleville West/Norm Armstrong Invitational could be the best yet.
Four teams that posted top six finishes at the IHSA state track and field meet last year, including Class 2A runner-up Cahokia, headline the 24-team field that will compete for individual and team honors beginning at 11 a.m. today at Belleville West High School.
Cahokia, which features defending state long jump champion Laderrick Ward and state indoor triple jump champion Vernon Carter, will be joined in the field by powers such as Belleville West, Belleville East, Herrin, East St Louis and Sparta.
Edwardsville, led by the dynamic distance running duo of Daniel Mazar and Garrett Sweatt, also is in the field as is always competitive O’Fallon.
“It’s a loaded field and as a competitor, that’s what you want. You want to see how you measure up against the best,” West coach Patton Segraves said. “Last year, you had several of the teams use this meet as a springboard toward doing well at the state meet.
“Cahokia might be the favorite to win the Class 2A state titl,e and then when you add ourselves, Belleville East and East St Louis, you’ve got three of the top 10 Class 3A teams. We added Herrin, which has the defending Class 1A state champion in the high jump and long jump and Sparta, which has an athlete who went 17 feet in the pole vault the other day. Like I said, it’s a loaded field.”
Running preliminaries begin at 11:30 a.m. with the finals set to start about 12:15 p.m.
Host West, which finished third at the 2009 Class 3A state meet, is loaded in the sprint relays and in senior Jarvis Patterson has one of the state’s best in the 300 intermediate hurdles.
East, sixth a year ago at state, won the season opening Southwestern Illinois Relays, also is a threat in the sprint relays and has a top long jumper/sprinter in junior Darnell Stevenson.
Herrin, fifth in the Class 1A state finals, is led by senior Zach Riley. Riley, who has already cleared 7 feet 2 inches in the high jump this season, won at state a year ago by clearing 7-0. He also is the Class 1A defending state long jump champion.
Sparta, making its first appearance in the Belleville West Invitational, has perhaps the state’s top pole vaulter in senior Cody Klein.
Klein, who placed fourth at the Class 1A state meet in 2009 year when he cleared 15 feet, took second at the state indoor meet two weeks ago in Bloomington with a vault of 16 feet.
He has a personal best of 17 feet.
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