Wildcats dominate South Seven meet

MT. VERNON -- The Marion High School boys track and field team won the South Seven Conference meet for the second straight year Friday.
And the Wildcats won in convincing fashion with 182 points. Mt. Vernon was second at 127, followed by Cahokia (95), Centralia (80), Carbondale (43) and Belleville Althoff (12).
"When you win once, you're excited," said Marion coach Eli Baker. "But when you win twice, you know it wasn't a fluke or a surprise. We have a team that has turned a corner and has become a championship team. And we're excited about that."
The Wildcats dominated even without Jaden Lacy, who was unable to participate, or else the point total would've likely been even higher with his regular marks in high jump and long jump.
"The nice thing is we're not a one-man team," Baker said. "We didn't win today because of one guy, we won today because of this entire track team. I'm proud to say that about our track team."
Michael Rutkowski won both the mile (4:32.80) and the two-mile (10:33.77) races with John Bruce second in both at 4:38.31 and 10:40.08.
Josh Schmid won both the discus (142-5) and shot put (49-9.5), with Jacob Rice second in discus (124-1) and James Gunn second in shot put (48.8.5).
Stuart Adkinson won both the 110 hurdles (14.48) and the 300 hurdles (39.90).
Ian Gilcrist was both second in triple jump (42-1.75) and third in pole vault (13-0).
"Nobody here did one event," Baker said. "Everybody doubled up and some guys tripled up. When you can do that, you can fill all the events up."
Josh Patula was another of those as he was third in high jump at 5-11 and sixth in long jump (17-11). Dylan Kinell was third in the 110 hurdles (15.90) and fifth in the triple jump (38-2).
Another event winner was Levi Bryant as he won the 800 in 2:04.26 and also started the winning 4x800 relay (8:47.12) which also featured Julian McPhail, Tim Surburg and Ryan Melvin.
Surburg was second in the 400 (52.40) and Melvin was third in the 800 (2:07.38). Ryan Elmore was third in the 100 at 11.48 and helped the sprint relays.
"The distance guys did what they were expected to do," Baker said. "And we had some seniors like Ryan Melvin and Julian McPhail who have had some aches and pains but were able to come back and run. Ryan Elmore is another senior who was able to come back and he ran some PRs. So that's what it's all about. We're happy for everybody."
Marion competes at the Salem 2A Sectional on Thursday.