Shapiro Shines As Edwardsville Wins Southwestern Conference Meet

COLLINSVILLE – All around, it was a good day for the Edwardsville High School girls track team. The Tigers won the 2025 Southwestern Conference Invite Wednesday afternoon with a team score of 137 points.

O’Fallon and Belleville East tied for second with 122 points, Alton was fourth with 81 points, followed by East St. Louis with 38, Belleville West with 31, and the hosting Kahoks with 36.

The day started strong with field events.

The Tigers went one-two in the pole vault. Jaylinn Bell won, clearing 3.05 meters while Alex Wolfe took second by clearing 2.90 meters.

Edwardsville also took first and second in both the shot put and discus with the duo of Jayla Gathing and Joi Story. Gathing won the discus with her first throw being her best at 41.72 meters. Story barely took second with a mark of 41.21 meters.

The two flipped in the shot put. Story won with her final throw of 11.77 meters. Gathing’s last throw was also her best at 10.82 meters for second place.

With the pole vaulters and throwers combined, they scored 54 of Edwardsville’s 137 points.

In the running events, one of the first races of the day was the 4x100-meter relay in which Edwardsville finished third. The group of Joslyn Springman, Karli Barton, Sophia Shapiro, and Joanna Anoke ran a time of 47.60 seconds.

Shapiro would go on to win the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.26 seconds while teammate Adara Martin was fourth at 15.54 seconds. Shapiro also won the 300-meter hurdles in 42.83 seconds while Martin was fourth in 46.44 seconds.

Anoke went on to take third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.26 seconds and second in the 200-meter dash in 24.93 seconds. Macey Hessel took third in the 400-meter at 1:01.97.

Springman, Barton, and Anoke were joined by Jahzara Zakkour in the 4x200-meter relay and took third with a time of 1:42.73.

In the distance races, Cara Kielty took third in the two-mile with a time of 13:10.67. O’Fallon’s Madelyn Lane and Jessica Wilczak went one-two with times of 11:58.41 and 12:45.71, respectively.

O’Fallon was first and second again in the one-mile with Ellie Bush (5:19.20) and Mae Naveira (5:28.03). Edwardsville’s Willow Jackson and Ava Horsfall took third and sixth with times of 5:44.59 and 6:04.57, respectively.

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