Alton’s Katie Mans stretches before competing in the high jump during the Southwestern Illinois Relays on March 24 at Edwardsville. Mans was in Charleston on Saturday and earned her third Class 3A state medal with a third-place finish in the high jump.
Billy Hurst / For The Telegraph
Alton junior Katie Mans made her third trip to the medals podium at O’Brien Field on Saturday at the Class 3A girls track state meet in Charleston.
For a Redbirds relay unit, the state medal was a first.
Sophomores Jeanea Epps and Daysha Lacey, senior TyRiss Holloway and freshman Alleyah Tuggle placed eighth in the finals of the 4×100 relay with a time of 48.95 seconds. They are the only relay in Alton girls track history to medal at state.
Seven individuals have earned state medals for the Redbirds. Mans picked up her third by clearing 5 feet, 5 inches to claim a third-place medal in the high jump at Eastern Illinois University. Mans tied Cary-Grove junior Tabor Gleason and Yorkville senior Sydney Anderson for third ahead of two others also jumping 5-5. Chicago Heights Bloom senior Jelena Rowe, the top-ranked jump in the nation, won state with a leap of 6-0.
Mans joins LaJarvia Brown as the only Redbirds to earn three state medals in the same event. Brown, completing her freshman year at Texas A&M, was a three-time state champion in the triple jump and three-time medalist in the long jump. Brown also won a state title in the 100-meter hurdles and earned two medals in the 300 hurdles.
O’Fallon won the 400-meter relay in 47.55. Four Southwestern Conference teams were among the nine teams to qualify for the finals. Belleville West placed fourth and Granite City was sixth, ahead of the Redbirds.
Edwardsville had two entries on the track Saturday, with the 4×800 relay and sophomore Jaycie Hudson in the 3,200. Hudson was 26th in 11:36.55. The 3,200-meter relay of Victoria Vegher, Lorie Cashdollar, Madeline Miller and Abby Korak came home in 9:33.79 to place 11th in a 12-team finals.
In the Class 1A meet, Carlinville’s Emma Smith cleared 11-9 to place third in the pole vault. The Cavaliers sophomore went 10-3 in the prelims to qualify after winning the Litchfield Sectional with a vault 10-6. Smith was eighth last season at 10-0 and joins Molly Schwab (second in 2004, seventh in 2002) as a two-time state medalist in the pole vault for Carlinville.
Carlinville sophomore Rachel Olroyd also made the finals after qualifying in Thursday’s Class 1A prelims. Olroyd ran the 800 meters in 2:24.78 to place 12th in a 12-runner field separated by less than 12 seconds.
Marquette Catholic’s Riley Vickrey placed 16th in the 3,200 with a time of 12:06.46, finishing midpack in a field of 32. The Explorers freshman earned her state trip by placing second in the Litchfield Sectional in 12:07.73.
