A fight broke out in the stands at the SWC conference championship track meet on May 8, causing the meet to be cancelled.

After the 4×800, the first race of the meet, an apparent argument broke out in the stands. When administrators stepped in to break it up, it became even more hectic.

“They started fighting and after that literally everyone was fighting,” junior Kendall Abdur-Rahman said. “The whole east side track team rushed to the bleachers too. It went on for about 15 minutes.”

When the incident was finally calmed, the meet was cancelled.

“It was best to cancel the meet today for the safety of the participants and the fans,” East St. Louis athletics director Darren Sunkett said to the Post-Dispatch. “The conference (athletic directors) will speak later on this evening if we’re going to reschedule this meet for Friday or just cancel it.”

Athletic Directors around the conference met on May 10 and concluded that the meet would not be rescheduled.

“You would hope we could all gather together in the stadium and watch a bunch of great athletes perform and we were unable to do that today,” Sunkett said to the Post-Dispatch. “It’s disappointing. Some things are out of our control. As far as I know right now it wasn’t students who started the whole thing in the stands.”

The East Saint Louis school district is now investigating the incident hoping to uncover the cause and apologized for its happening.

“We strive to ensure that all of our students, staff and patrons are safe and secure on our premises,” said the East Saint Louis School District in a press statement. “We regret that the incident occurred and that the athletes were unable to compete that evening.”