Alton, Edwardsville Girls Compete in Informal Triangular Meet With O'Fallon

EDWARDSVILLE – The Alton and Edwardsville girls’ track teams were able to get outdoors for the first time in the 2019 season, and both teams competed well in an informal triangular meet with O’Fallon held Tuesday afternoon at the Winston Brown Track and Field Center.

There were no times posted, nor any team scores kept, unlike in a formal meet. But both coaches still saw some good performances from their athletes under meet conditions, and are very optimistic heading into the new season.

“I was happy,” said Edwardsville coach Camilla Eberling. “The weather was good, and we saw some good things from the girls, so I was excited. We put them in a couple of different situations to see what they would do, and they did well.”

Eberling gave credit to junior distance runner Abby Korak for stepping up to fill in a spot in a relay, and Maddie Miller for her performance.

“You’ve gotta take credit for girls like Abby Korak, who ran the two-mile and mile,” Eberlin said, “then she jumped in and filled in a spot in the 400. Maddie Miller ran a good two mile and mile. We had a lot of good things.”

As it’s still early on, Eberlin is still putting the pieces of the team together.

“Oh, it’s early. We’re just waiting to see,” Eberlin said. “We’re kind of putting some pieces back together, so we’ll see here in the next couple of meets what we’ve got.”

As far as goals for the season, Eberlin keeps things simple.

“Just to get as many girls to state as we can,” Eberlin said. “And increase our times.”

Redbirds’ coach Jada Moore thought her young team competed well and will improve as the season goes along.

“I felt like we got out and competed,” Moore said. “I felt like we are very young, and it shows. But I feel like later down the line when it matters, we’re going to be able to compete as best as we can.”

Moore was very happy just to get outside for one of the first times this season, and get the season started.

“Yeah, we’ve got to dust the kinks off the spikes,” Moore said with a laugh and smile, “and the cobwebs off. We’re back in outdoors, and it feels good to be out and be able to see since we don’t compete in an indoor championship. We use the indoor to get them prepared for the outdoor season. So it’s good to actually see what their capable of doing outside.”

The numbers are down for the team this season, but Moore feels like she has a small team that can do big things.

“I felt like we are a small team with a lot of bang,” Moore said. “We’re really small; our numbers are really low this year. But I feel like we’ve got where we need to have that bang at, we have it.”

Senior Jeanea Epps was cited as a standout by Moore, and her relay teams did well also.

“Our (4x100 team), we got first in our four-by-one,” Moore said, “we got first in our four-by-two, we saw some good things on that. So we’re excited, us having such a young team, to see them getting out and compete, no complaints, that’s always a good thing as a coach.”

Moore believes that by the time of the state meet series in May, the Redbirds should have everything ironed out and set to go.

“Hopefully, we get everything ironed out,” Moore said. “We get all the wrinkles ironed out by then.”

And as far as expectations for the team, Moore feels very optimistic about Alton’s chances.

“I’m feeling very optimistic,” Moore said. “I think we can do some great things this year. I think we can be one of the top teams in the state this year.”

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story

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