Blog

By Jim Wieners

Hazelwood Central, winners of three consecutive Class Four Boys State titles in the last three years, left a message April 6 at University City High in the Charlie Beck Invitational. For at least the third year in a row Hazelwood Central won the Boys Championship. Central scored 115 points and was 15 better than runner up CBC (100). Among the other North County high schools at U. City Hazelwood East was fourth (71), Ritenour was fifth (68), McCluer North was eighth (45), Riverview Gardens was 11th (18), McCluer South-Berkeley was 13th (14) and Lutheran North was 14th (four).

That same day McCluer High is sending a message to the Suburban North Conference after winning the Timberland Wolfpack Invitational in Wentzville. McCluer scored 130 points while host Timberland was second with 117. Another Suburban North School, Pattonville, was eighth in the nine-team meet with 46.

Earlier in the week three North County high schools that competed in University City also competed in Festus in the Tiger Town Invitational. On May 2 Hazelwood East won the boys meet by scoring 120 points while Hillsboro was a distant second with 70.3. McCluer South-Berkeley was seventh with 38 and Riverview Gardens was 10th with 35.3.

Also on May 2 North Technical was the highest North County finisher at the Maplewood-Richmond Heights Invitational by finishing third with 71 points while John Burroughs won the meet with 143. Normandy was fourth with 64 and Pattonville was fifth with 61.

Five Hazelwood Central men won individual titles while winning one of the relay events at University City. The relay win was in the 4×200 event and the Hawks won in 1:28.34. Matt Quarells led a one-two Hazelwood Central finish in the 400-Meter Dash in 49.37 seconds while teammate Brandon Chunn was four-hundredths of a second behind Quarells in taking second.

Also on the track Kendall Preston sprinted to a 100-Meter Dash win in 11.1 seconds Marcus Davis had a winning 1:57.91 run at 800 Meters. In field events Roderick Johnson got a winning shot put heave of  54’6.5” while Jimmy Adams got a winning 42-foot Triple Jump.

McCluer got a pair of one-two finishes at Timberland, one on the track and one in a field event. In the 200-Meter Dash Kevin Spraggins won the event in 22.67 second while teammate Raequin Stallings was five-hundredths of a second behind in finishing second. Meanwhile Diontay Hatch won with a heave of 51’6.5” while runner up and teammate Lynzel Owens finished a foot behind Hatch.

Elsewhere McCluer won the 4×100-Meter Relay in 44.52 seconds while Malik Ray cleared the High Jump bar of 6’4” to win that event.

Hazelwood East did not win a single event at University City but was more successful at Festus earlier in the week. Bobby Smith won two individual events as he ran the 100-Meter Dash in 11.1 seconds and ran the 300-Meter Hurdles in 40.66 seconds. East won two sprint relays as the Spartans took the 4×100 in 42.97 seconds and the 4×200 in 1:30.3 while Long Jumper William Bell won the event with a 20’0.5” leap.

McCLUER NORTH hurdler Aaron Mallet was a double repeat winner at the University City Charlie Beck Invitational. Mallet successfully defended his title in the 110-Meter Hurdles with a 14.05 second run and successfully defended his 300-Meter Hurdles title with a 37.72-second run.

TRINITY CATHOLIC had only one win May 6 at the John Burroughs Skippy Keefer Relays. Trinity won the 1,600-Meter Sprint Medley Relay in 4:04.1.

RIVERVIEW GARDENS had a winner in the Festus Tiger Town Invitational. John Gould won the 800-Meter Run in 2:03.3.