Scott Kane / For The Telegraph
GODFREY – An eighth-place finish at the 2015 Class 3A girls track state meet has the Alton Redbirds aiming for a state upgrade in 2016.
With all of those point producers back, a top-five target would seem reasonable. But the Redbirds are dreaming bigger.
“I’m looking at top three, maybe,” said Alton senior LaJarvia Brown, who placed in three events to score 19 of the team’s 24.5 state points as a junior.
Fourth or fifth place earns nothing tangible. But third or better from the weekend at Eastern Illinois’ O’Brien Stadium in Charleston comes with state hardware that Brown and her teammates seek for the trophy case at AHS.
“I want it,” Brown said. “I want it so bad. I think it’s possible.”
Longtime Alton coach Terry Mitchell is on board with top-three talk.
“That’s what we’d love to do,” Mitchell said. “If we do that, it would be the first ever. In order to do that, we’ve got to keep improving and have people step up. I think we have the capability to do it.”
The presence of the 5-foot-3 Brown makes its possible, if not probable. The Texas A&M recruit, a two-time state champion in the triple jump, plans on competing in four events at state.
Along with defending her title in the triple jump, Brown expects to compete in the long jump, 100-meter hurdles and 300 hurdles at state. Brown went 18 feet, 3 inches in the long jump last season to place sixth at state. She has already gone 19-4 this season.
Brown was fifth in the 300 hurdles last season with a time of 44.31 seconds. She is looking to add the 100 hurdles as a senior, though high jump appears to be an option after Brown cleared 5-4 in Friday’s Jersey Relays.
Brown has done work on Redbirds relays in the past, but prefers to go in four open events next month.
“That way, I can just depend on myself,” Brown said with a smile. “If I do bad, then I can just be mad at myself. I don’t want to put the blame on anybody else or point fingers or anything like that.”
Joining Brown as state qualifiers back for the Redbirds are senior Jewel Wagner and sophomore Katie Mans. Wagner placed sixth in the shot put as a junior with a heave of 40-9.75. Mans tied for eighth in the high jump at 5-4.
Senior Chayvon Buckingham gives Alton another entry in the shot put with state qualifying potential. But while the Redbirds’ talent translates into point production at state, the depth is not likely to allow them to contend for a Southwestern Conference championship despite what Brown calls “some really good freshmen.”
Alton was the SWC’s top finisher at state last season after placing fifth at the conference meet. The Redbirds did win their first major outdoor meet of the season at the Michael Rodgers Invitational at McCluer South-Berkley High in Missouri.
But against primarily Illinois opposition a week later at the Southwestern Illinois Relays, the Redbirds placed third. The week after that brought a fourth-place finish at the Belleville West Invite before a runner-up finish Friday behind the host Panthers at the Jersey Relays.
“Our girls are stepping up,” Mitchell said after the Southwestern Illinois event at Edwardsville on March 26. “We needed a meet like this to let them see what it’s like in Illinois. Last week against Missouri told us a lot about the Missouri schools. But this tells us the real story. We’ve got work to do.”
