GODFREY – After a month, the wins continue to pile up for Abby Korak in the distance events.
The Edwardsville freshman won the 800 with a time of 2 minutes, 18.70 seconds at the 21st Alton Invitational on Thursday at the AHS track. She was the lone Edwardsville champion at the nine-team meet.
Korak also helped the Tigers place third with 100 points. Edwardsville finished fourth with 100 points in last year's meet.
Host Alton, led by a first-place finish from Kellie Mans in the 400, placed seventh with 55 points and Granite City finished eighth with 19.
O'Fallon won the title by just five points over East St. Louis. The Panthers scored 183 points and the Flyers had 178.
Cahokia was fourth with 90 points, Hazelwood Central came in fifth with 76, Triad finished sixth with 58 and Madison was ninth with three.
Korak also helped the Tigers turn in a strong performance in the distance events, scoring 53 points. Edwardsville also had second-place finishes from Jaycie Hudson (1,600), Victoria Vegher (800) and Abby Schrobilgen (3,200) and their 3,200-meter relay team, a third-place finish from Melissa Spencer (1,600) and a fourth-place finish from Julianna Determan (3,200).
Korak has blossomed into one of the Tigers' top performers in the distance events since the season began in March. She won the 1,600 in the Belleville West and Homewood-Flossmoor Invitationals and placed first in the 3200 in the O'Fallon Invitational.
Edwardsville also got third-place finishes from Savannah Maloney (discus) and its 800-meter sprint medley team.
Mans, a sophomore, won her first Alton Invitational title after winning the 400 in one minute. She was the lone Alton champion.
Mans is the younger sister of junior Katie Mans, who won the high jump in last year's Alton meet but didn't compete on Thursday.
Last year, Alton placed fifth with 97 points. LaJarvia Brown, who is now competing at Texas A&M, won three events and set two records in the 2016 meet.
Granite City's best finish was fifth from its 4x800 team and senior Niya Wilson in the 200.
“It's a very tough meet with Cahokia and East St. Louis to go with O'Fallon and Edwardsville,” Granite City coach Tom Miller said. “It's a tough meet to be in. Even though it wasn't a big meet, any of those four teams can win most of the meets they go to. It was tough competition. We didn't have our best meet with the sprints. We're going to work on handoffs and focus for next week for Madison County.”
The Warriors, Tigers and Redbirds will compete in the Madison County large-school championship meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Granite City. Edwardsville is the defending champion.
“We're looking forward to the meet and having some good performances,” Miller said. “The girls broke the county record last year in the 4x1 and 4x2, so we're looking forward to trying to defend their title in those.”
The AHS track was constructed last year. In the past, the Alton Invitational was held at Public School Stadium at West Elementary School.
