Brandon Battle and his Edwardsville mates put on a great display at the Norm Armstrong Invite
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Belleville West HS; Belleville IL
The Norm Armstrong Invitational debuted Edwardsville superstar senior Brandon Battle's first meet in two months. But it was his team's first invite in two years because of the coronavirus.
The Tigers won every sprint event except the 4x200m relay where Mascoutah clinched the win at 1:32.05 versus their 1:33.26. The unrated Tiger's superiority led them to the team title with 119.5 points over 2A #5 Mascoutah's 111.5.
Despite his absence from competition, Battle came out strong and was dominant in
the 4x100m relay, 400m, and 200m. In Battle's first event of the day, he anchored his team to an easy win and state leading 42.63. The Tigers are the only team in the state under 43-seconds. The main event was next and what proceeded later rocked the Richter scale when it was over. Battle was unkind to his competition as he bolted out of the blocks and rotated around the track. The final outcome was a school record and state-leading 47.56. Battle has positioned himself as one of the premier long sprinters in the country. His final event was the icing on the cake, burning the track up in the 200, clocking another school record 21.46. It is also an IL#1 mark.
On the hurdles, East St. Louis Sr. senior Devontae Ford took both the 110m and
the 300m hurdles finishing in 14.53 and 38.72 respectfully.
Field events were faced with high winds that blew across the stadium.
In the pole vault, Triad senior Caleb Rutz's last vault finished at 13-9 followed by Jackson Lee of Collinsville at 12-6
In the long jump pit, junior Elijah McCauley of Belleville East won his flight with a jump of 21-4 beating out Mascoutah's Chase Hanson's 21-1.5. In the triple jump, McCauley took second at 42-8.25 falling behind Cahokia junior Nicholas Deloach at 43-3.5.
Senior Barry Evans of Mascoutah proved to be a threat in the discus and the shot put. Evans threw 172-1.25 and put 51-0.25 respectively. E. St. Louis Sr. junior Samuel McCain followed putting a 15.06m in the finals.
On the high jump, there was a five-way tie between Senior Tyrez Rogers of Collinsville, freshman Khalil Thorps-Watt of Collinsville, sophomore Zach Wolf of Belleville West, senior Lintez Simmons of East St. Louis, and senior Kory Dutch of Granite City. They all cleared 1.75m
In the 800m, senior Alex Tillock of O'Fallon finished at 1:58.16, in front of senior Theo Paxton of Collinsville who ran 1:59.38.