Alton’s boys’ track and field team continues to make advances in not only distance events, but relays and sprints as well.
Sophomores Evan Rathgeb and Arie Macias paced the team with strong finishes Friday afternoon in the Granite City Invitational. Rathgeb placed second in the 3,200 meters with a time of 10:20 and Macias finished in a personal record time of 4:40 in the 1,600 meters. Teammate James Steinman sliced 7 seconds off his best time in the 800 with a time of 2:10 to place in the top 12.
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“We worked them hard in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and they all set p.r. times,” Alton coach Eric Dickerson said.
Cahokia finished with 184 points to capture the Granite City Meet; Belleville West tallied 122 points and Edwardsville 94.5 points. Alton was 11th in the meet with 21 points overall.
The 4 x 200 relay of Harrison Henderson, Simeon Brown, Mark Muhammad and Ronald Gilchrese sliced 3 seconds off their time for a time of 1:32 to place fifth.
Freshman Jonathan Bumpers seemed to find his niche in the triple jump, leaping 40 feet for seventh place. He just started with the team this week. Discus thrower Zach Llewellyn finished seventh.
“The sophomores are challenging and pushing each other in practice and that makes each other better throughout meets,” Dickerson said. “That is a great thing. We haven’t seen internal competition like that for a while. I am very excited about our future.”
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