Sam Sikon (pictured) had a great day in the weight events including a new meet record in the Shot Put (Mike Newman Photo)

By Michael Newman, ILXCTF.com Editor

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Belleville – There are so many things that can happen at the same time at a track & field meet. If a meet is not run properly, it can become a three-ring circus. If everything clicks, like it did Saturday’s Norm Armstrong Invitational at Belleville West, some amazing things can happen.

Sam Sikon of Carbondale came to this meet for the amazing to happen. His school was not there. He did want to compete with some of the best in the state in the weight events. The same could be said about the other athletes competing in this meet. It just brought some of the best together to put up some great times or marks. Three meet records were broken within 30 minutes of each other.

It started in the Shot Put where Sikon would be going against John Meyer of Lockport Township and AJ Epenesa of Edwardsville. Sikon was in control of the event from the start. He five of the six longest marks in the event starting with his 61-7.25 put in the first round. He bettered that in his next attempt with a 62-9 mark breaking the 47-year-old meet record that Belleville West’s Tom Stock set in 1970 (62-2).

Sikon was not done. He bettered that two more times with a 64-9 put in round three and then a personal best 65-0.25 in round five. Meyer had four fouls out of his six attempts but his 61-8 put in the fifth round got him second overall.

The three faced off again in the Discus. The winds were helping some of the other events in the meet. It was causing some havoc with the distances as they were throwing with a tailwind. Epenesa made the best out of the situation throwing 187-10 in the third round to win the event. Meyer threw 173-4 in the second round to place second. Sikon improved with each attempt as his final throw of 164-10 his best to place him third.

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At the same time Sikon was showing his mastery in the Shot-Put ring, Plainfield North’s Marcellus Moore was settling himself in the blocks for the start of his section of the 100 Meter Dash. Moore had showed his speed indoors. He was ready to do the same in the longer distance with a healthy wind to his back. His start was good but he found himself a little bit behind the pack. He pulled even at 40-meters and then exploded away in the final 30-meters of the race. His time of 10.55 is the best time in the state early in this season. It also broke Ja’Mari Ward’s meet record of 10.64 that was se just one year-ago.

How good was the field in the event? Eight runners dipped under 11-seconds. Sure, there was a wind that helped these runners for that 100-meter distance. I think we would have seen just as fast times with these runners. Plainfield North Coach Tony Holler said after the meet that runners that were in the “slower” sections of every race could make the state finals at the end of May. He’s right.

Moore’s win in the 200 Meter Dash was like that at the shorter sprint distance. He came out of the turn making up the stagger on the other runners. He was even with the pack with 60-meters to go. He found that surge again and was gone from the field. He did not get Ward’s meet record in this race (21.28). This freshman will have three more times to capture it.

Six runners were under 22-seconds which is something you would see in a state race. Just don’t see those kind of times this early in the year unless you are on the Belleville West track for this invitational.

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Just after Moore’s “wow” moment in the 100 Meter Dash, Chris Conrad of O’Fallon took to the starting line of the 800 Meter Run. He came so close to the meet record of 1:55.00 in winning this race last year. There were doubts that it would happen on this day since the wind was hitting the runners head-on in the backstretch at a 10 to 15 mph pace gusty to 25 mph. The thing was, no one told Conrad that.

Conrad left no doubt that he wanted this met record as he led wire to wire. He went past the first 400-meters in 56.7 with the pack close to his shoulder. Teammate Joey Black briefly took the lead on the back stretch. That was the thing that Conrad needed. He entered the turn leaving the wind at his face and the pack behind him. A final 28-second 200-meters brought his home in a state best 1:53.85. Cahokia’s Chris Stanley moved in the final stretch to finish second with 3A state cross country champion Soren Knudsen of Minooka finishing third (1:57.23).

Knudsen would not let the 1600 Meter Run turn into a tactical race especially with how strong the wind was blowing. It looked like it the first half of the race with the pack going through the first 800-meters in a pedestrian 2:17. Knudsen made a strong move on the back stretch and coming up to 1200-meters in 3:23.1 opening a four second lead on the pack including Conrad. That move gave the gap he needed especially with the kick that Conrad possessed. The O’Fallon senior tried to make a move but ran out of real estate as Knudsen crossed the line in 4:27.07 two seconds ahead of Conrad (4:29.52).

Meet Notes

The meet team title came down to the final few events between defending 3A State champion East St. Louis-Senior and one of the 3A team favorites this year Edwardsville. The Tigers’ depth was the difference as they scored 94 to capture the title ahead of Southwest Conference rival East St. Louis-Senior with 83 points. Defending 2A champion looked strong during the meet as they finished third with 77 points. Homewood-Flossmoor scored 74 points to finish fourth.

Besides the win by Epenesa, Edwardsville picked up wins in three other events. Blake Neville cleared 14-1 to win the Pole Vault. Devonte Tincher had a momentous day including a second-place finish in the 200 Meter Dash with a school record time (21.68). He also had one of the few wind-legal marks in the Long Jump as he had a 23-4.5 mark (+1.1 wind) to win the event ahead of Cahokia’s Marquis Murray (22-7.25).

Edwardsville’s third win was provided by Travis Anderson in the 110-Meter-High Hurdles. It did not look like Anderson got off to the best of starts. By the time he got to the fourth hurdle, he had the race won. His time of 14.10 was four tenth of a second ahead of second-place Theo Phipps of St. Rita (14.55) and East St. Louis-Senior’s Delano Anderson (14.59).

It looked like Travis Anderson would pick up the win in the 300-Meter Intermediate Hurdles. Delano Anderson made a charge in the final straight catching Travis with two hurdles to go. Delano ran 38.61 for the win just ahead of the 39.46 run by Travis Anderson.

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East St. Louis-Senior had run the night before at the Al Joyner Classic on their home track. It did not show in some of their performances on Saturday. The Flyers took the top two spots in the 400 Meter Dash as Deante Anderson ran 49.08 for the win ahead of freshman teammate Willie Johnson (49.29). They also picked up a win in the 800 Meter Relay (1:29.35) just holding off Homewood-Flossmoor (1:29.87). The Vikings came from behind in the 400 Meter Relay for the win (42.29) ahead of East St. Louis-Senior (42.43) and Plainfield North (42.54).

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Area rivals East. Louis-Senior and Cahokia faced off in the final race of the day in the 1600 Meter Relay. The two teams were even at the first exchange. Cahokia got an edge as Chris Stanley ran a 49.6 second leg. Anchor Kerry Williams pulled away on the final 100-meters to give the Comanches the win (3:20.22) ahead of East St. Louis-Senior (3:22.53) and Homewood-Flossmoor (3:26.78).