A boat load of rain and flash-flooding Friday around LSU’s campus and around Baton Rouge wasn’t enough to wash away the momentum of hometown teams on the second day of the LHSAA’s outdoor track and field state championships.
Southern Lab capped opening-day action Thursday with a sweep of the Class 1A titles, and Episcopal-Baton Rouge, Parkview Baptist and University Lab combined to keep all four Class 2A and 3A crowns in the city in a memorable day of precipitation and perseverance.
“It definitely is a prideful moment to see that our town is really pulling in with athletes and really coming up with some incredible competitors,” said Parkview Baptist senior Jana Thymes, who earned Outstanding Performer among Class 3A girls. “And I’ll be honest, I haven’t really been in the track world long enough to know all of them personally. But I’d say from the people I met the last two years, I’ve made some really unforgettable friends just from the surrounding area. And I’d say that that, too, the track community here is just so great because everybody collectively wants to see everybody get better, and I think that’s really why Baton Rouge was able to really tear up at the state championships today.”
PARKVIEW BAPTIST DOMINANT IN 3A GIRLS
Thymes won the 100-meter (12.00 seconds) and 200-meter (24.63 seconds) dashes and long jump (18-10.75) to help lead the most dominant team performance of the day as the Eagles scored 118 points in a Baton Rouge-heavy top of the 3A girls’ standings with Madison Prep (68) and University Lab (58).
Junior distance runner Lucy Cramer was excellent as always, as well, with wins in the 1600-meter (a class-record 4:57.55) and 3200-meter (11:22.38), second-place in the 800-meter (2:16.22) and an anchor leg of a third-place 4×400-meter relay (4:06.45).
Sophomore Molly Cramer added yet another high-scoring day with second-place finishes in the 1600-meter (5:13.21) and 3200-meter (11:28.76) to complete another distance-double 1-2 by the sister duo and also ran the third leg of the 4×400-meter and the anchor of the winning, early and tone-setting 4×800-meter relay (9:39.05).
Senior Georgia Theriot, an LSU signee, won the 800-meter (2:15.48) and led off both relays, freshman Olivia Kohn took second in the shot put (35-08.00) and freshman Ramsey Edmonds (10-00.00) and sophomore Ansley Bernhard (9-00.25) took third and fourth in the pole vault.
“I feel like I’ve really grown with these girls,” Theriot said. “I don’t think there are so many girls that I’m as close with as the girls on my team, and I feel like it’s because we’ve struggled together, we’ve fought so many battles together, and it really just comes down to being able to come out on top together and know deep down who we are.”
MAX TSOLAKIS, LAMAR BROWN LEAD U-HIGH BOYS TO GOLD
LSU football signee Lamar Brown started the day with a class-record shot put (62-07.25) next door in the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse because of the storm that washed out most of the middle of the day.
The title marked his second in three years in the outdoor event and fifth track championship in all: two outdoor shot put, two indoor shot put and an outdoor discus.
“It meant a lot,” Brown said. “It meant a lot for the last four years. I used to do it when I was small, but it felt better here in high school winning state. And actually just putting up a record in shot put, that means a lot to me, and it felt amazing.”
Brown added a fourth-place discus (138-11) later in the evening, but fellow senior Max Tsolakis closed out the trophy as much as anyone with a sweep of the 800-meter (1:56.79), 1600-meter (4:22.03) and 3200-meter (9:56.54) distance runs to stretch out the team margin and earn Outstanding Performer among the 3A boys.
U-High’s 74 team points edged Northwest (58), Glen Oaks (52) and St. James (45).
“For the past three of four years, this is my first time every placing first in any meet, really — cross country even — and I finally felt like for my team, I put that team on my back and I brought them to the finish line through every step,” Tsolakis said. “And all my coaches, all my teammates that pushed me forward, that worked with me every day in those uncomfortable moments, in those terrible moments where you’re sick and tired and don’t want to push anymore, it just means everything for me.
“Our team is like a family to me, and I would be nowhere without them.”
Junior Granger Collins took silver in the triple jump (45-00.50), junior Gordon Rush was third in javelin (164-06) and fourth in the 300-meter hurdles (41.65 seconds) and Nicholls State football signee Erin Moore finished third in the 200-meter dash (22.12 seconds).
And an all-football crew of running back Corbin Odell, Moore, wide receiver Lawson Dixon and running back Sage Ingram combined for bronze in the 4×100-meter relay (42.65 seconds).
“Just knowing that we won in the indoor and we also wanted to come back in the outdoor and do it, it’s great,” Brown said of the team’s day.
EPISCOPAL SWEEPS 2A BOYS, GIRLS
The staggering success of the Episcopal track program added another pair of state championships Friday as both the school’s boys and girls teams handled another rainy state meet with a slew of standpoint performances rather than a slightest blink.
“We talk about it all the time, we practice in the rain, we’re not worried about the rain and we actually were excited it was raining,” said Episcopal coach Claney Duplechain, who works with coach Bill Jones to lead the boys and girls groups, respectively. “We feel with practicing in it and not worrying about it and just competing as hard as we can in the rain gives us an advantage. But we really competed well today. I don’t know of anybody that didn’t give everything they had today.”
Senior William Foster Lambert earned Outstanding Performer among the Class 2A boys with his wins in the 800-meter (1:58.67) and 1600-meter (4:22.73) and anchor leg of the winning 4×400-meter relay (3:23.27).
A class-record 4×800-meter relay (8:12.60) of Aiden Grassman, Jacob Hutchinson-Johnson, Leo Abraham and Daniel Piazza and third-place long (21-02.00) and triple (44-07.00) jumps by senior Jeremy Mitchell helped start the Knights’ day strong.
And the veteran group continued to rake in points en route to 96 in all to hold off Lafayette Christian (80), Slaughter Community Charter (46) and the rest of the field.
“We knew as a team coming into the day it was gonna be a weird day with the rain and all the weather, but we did this exact same thing last year, so we knew what it took,” Lambert said. “We knew what we needed to do as a team and as individuals. So going into the mile, putting both divisions together, that was a little shocking at first, but I knew where I was in my race compared to the other guys in the division, so I knew how to run it. And then 800 and the 4×400, I knew where we were in the points, I knew what I had to do for my team and for myself. So it was great. All these guys are amazing. We couldn’t have done it without each other.”
Senior Wynn Turner enjoyed another big day with victory in the 110-meter hurdles (14.59 seconds) and took second in the 300-meter hurdles (38.78 seconds) and a leg, along with Lambert, junior Evan Sanders and Piazza, in a winning 4×400-meter relay (3:23.37).
Junior Mason Kelly finished third in the 3200-meter (10:03.11) and fifth in the 1600-meter (4:47.06), Sanders was third in the 300-meter hurdles (40.16 seconds), Piazza was fourth in the 800-meter (2:00.51) and freshman Christian Tucker was fifth in the 3200-meter (10:21.52).
Grassman and junior Benjamin Gautreaux chipped in sixth-place points in the pole vault (11-05.75) and triple jump (40-07.75), respectively, and a 4×200-meter relay of Sanders, Taj Callahan, Malcolm Juban and Turner finished fourth (1:29.66).
“It means so much,” Lambert said. ” Every time we put on these yellow jerseys, we know we’re racing for over 40 years of legacy, so every time we line up to race, we know that we need to cement ourselves in the history books. So in that 4×400 today, when I got the stick, I knew exactly what I needed to do, and it just came so naturally. It was amazing.”
Sophomore Neva Lambert‘s victory in the 3200-meter (11:25.18) and second-place finish in the 1600-meter (5:08.91) led a balanced effort for the Lady Knights.
Twelve different girls competed in the team’s four relays teams, all of which podiumed with silver in the 4×100-meter (49.80 seconds), 4×200-meter (1:44.72) and 4×800-meter (10:17.55) and bronze in the 4×400-meter (4:08.90).
Sophomore Adanze Ada Mere finished third in both the 800-meter (2:19.91) and 1600-meter (5:18.71) runs.
“For the mile, I knew we were gonna get around second or third, and my teammate went third and I went second,” Neva Lambert said. “I was kinda nervous how that was gonna go, but I got it out the way, so I was happy that I got it out the way. I was more nervous about that… I love the 3200. It’s probably my favorite race to do. I feel very relaxed doing it, and so coming into this race I just felt it was going to be very relaxing to do and I could help my team out.”
Junior Zoey Hodges chipped in a third-place long jump (16-10.75) and sixth-place 100-meter dash (12.56 seconds).
Sophomore Makyla Hiles finished fourth in the long jump (16-10.00) and fifth in the high jump (4-11.75) and triple jump (34-02.25), and junior Tiffany Foxworth claimed fifth in the 100-meter dash (12.44 seconds) and 400-meter run (1:00.43) and sixth in the 200-meter dash (26.20 seconds).
And junior Madeline Greene and sophomore Marielle Doherty were fifth in the pole vault (9-00.25) and 3200-meter (13:02.20), respectively.
The Lady Knights finished with 84 total team points to top Lafayette Christian (59), Lafayette Renaissance Charter (42) and the rest of the standings.
“I’m head coach of the boys, and Bill’s head coach of the girls, but we all coach the same,” Duplechain said. “I coach the distance runners. Bill coaches the sprinters. But we have a jumpers coach, a pole vault coach, so we all work together, so when we win together, it’s just such an accomplishment. And just love this group of girls and boys. They’re just a fantastic group who compete hard in practice every day and set goals and just tremendous athletes and good kids.”
