Alexandria’s drive for its first track and field championship in nearly two decades began taking early water in more ways than one Saturday.
Lightning storms in Baton Rouge forced jumps, shot put and pole vault indoors and delayed the start of other events for a few hours. Meanwhile, more critically, Barbe, St. Joseph’s Academy and Zachary pounced out to strong early points in an anticipated tight competition.
But a series of wins midway through the day began swiftly turning the tide and springing the Lady Trojans to 85 points and the top of the standings for a comfortable victory late and school’s first track title of any kind since the girls’ 2007 trophy.
“I am very excited,” senior Brielle Texada said after a winning javelin performance that helped highlight the pivotal stretch. “We definitely took the weather to our advantage, because other teams, they weren’t prepared, and I’m glad that we could put our work into this.”
Texada, a Georgia softball signee, and fellow senior Nyla Stewart, a ULM discus signee, swept golds in the two throws that were actually allowed to compete outdoors.
And sophomore Jamaria Byrd, Northwestern State-signed senior Amari Dupar, ULM-signed senior Devan Williams and sophomore Ja’Nya Gray took the 4×200-meter (1:37.54) and 4×100-meter (47.16 seconds) relays to lead the scoring on the track.
“That last leg, it was something,” an out-of-breath Gray laughed after the 4×200-meter. “Coming off that curve, I know we had Lafayette a little bit ahead of us. I was just thinking to myself, ‘OK, let me get out, let me do this for my team.’ It was the goal to come here and win gold today. Exactly what we did.”
Tulane-signed senior Noelle Williams took second in the triple jump (36-11.00) and third in the long jump (18-00.25) , and Gray (11.87 seconds) and Dupar (12.04 seconds) combined for a big 100-meter dash total with third- and fourth-place finishes, respectively.
Gray also added a fourth-place 200-meter dash (25.00 seconds), sophomore Alyssa Skipper bronzed in the shot put (36-04.75) and senior Ava Smith chipped in a sixth-place point in the 300-meter hurdles (45.64 seconds).
And a fourth-place 4×800-meter (junior Makiera Keys, freshman Evelyn Wold, sophomore Madeline Davis and sophomore Sophia Reish) and third-place 4×400-meter (Wold, Dupar, Byrd and Davis) bookended a strong day overall in the relays.
“It feels great,” Stewart said. “This is something we’ve worked for all season. Everybody’s been doing their part. It just feels great to add on to it. And I know that everyone’s proud. Everyone’s proud of how they performed. And I just wanted to be able to bring it home so we can have something to look back on and be proud of.”
Northshore sophomore Grace Keene earned the Class 5A girls’ Outstanding Performer distinction as she broke Louisiana composite records in both the 800-meter (2:11.69) and 1600-meter (4:54.48) runs to position herself among the headliners of a historic day at the event overall.
“It feels so amazing,” she said through the rain. “I’m just over the roof right now. I’m so happy. I didn’t realize I was getting the composite record in the 800 as well. So I’m just so grateful, and all that work I put in is paying off now, so it’s awesome.”
