In the days leading up to the state track and field聽meet for Classes 4A and 5A, the Acadiana area had a couple of teams with aspirations of bringing home some hardware.
However, by the time the meets ended Saturday at LSU's Bernie Moore Track Stadium, it was only Teurlings Catholic's girls that accomplished that feat.
The Rebels scored 56 points to finish as the Class 4A runner-up behind Warren Easton, who scored 72 to win the state championship. Huntington was third with 51 points, St. Thomas More scored 42 to come in fourth and Brusly finished with 35 to round out the top five.
"I'm so proud of them," Rebels coach Brad Taylor said. "I'm happy that they are getting this acknowledgement. It's a special group of seniors supported by a strong group of underclassmen. I'm excited to see this team get rewarded for their effort."
The state runner-up finish marks the first time in four decades that the Rebels girls track team had finished this high.
"It has been 40 years since the last time we have brought home some hardware on the girls side," Taylor said. "This is a really special group of girls to do this with. I'm really excited for them."
The Rebels earned points in six events, included first places from Addison Richey in the pole vault (13 feet, 1陆 inches), Angelle Dupuis in the 800 (2 minutes, 17.03 seconds) and the 1,600 (5:20.48), as well as the 4x400 relay (4:01.49).
"We qualified for state in eight events," Taylor said. "We knew we had a chance to get on the podium in those events and if we did that, we would put some points up."
Dupuis was the catalyst as usual. In addition to winning the 800 and 1,600, Dupuis helped the Rebels place second in the 4x800 relay (9:49.69) and she was fourth in the 3,200-meter run (12:09.43).
"Angelle kind of put the team on her back and carried us," Taylor said. "We asked her to do the most challenging thing you can ask of someone in track and that's to run the 4x800, the mile, the 800 and the two-mile. She did about as well as anyone could in the state. She was tremendous."
Taylor said the schedule and recovery period contributed to Dupuis fourth place in the 3,200.
"The way the schedule was there wasn't much time to recover between her events," Taylor said. "It was about a 15-to-20-minute recovery period, and Angelle was trying to get her legs back. She gutted it out and finished fourth for us, which helped us finish as the state runner-up. She was special all night for us, as she's been all four years."
In Class 4A boys, Lafayette Christian finished third with 39 points. Tioga won the state championship with 60 points, while Warren Easton was the runner-up wiith 54.
The Knights didn鈥檛 finish first in their six events. Their best performances were second places from T.J. Marzel in the 100 (10.45), Matthew Edwards in the 1,600 (4:24.35) and Trae Grogan in the long jump (22-3戮).
In Class 5A girls, Lafayette High fell short in its quest to win a state title, settling for third with 41 points. The Lions trailed state champion Scotlandville, who scored 83 points and runner-up Barbe, who finished with 51.
鈥淚t just wasn鈥檛 a good night,鈥 Lions coach Ron Baillargeon said. 鈥淭he kids performed hard. I鈥檝e never had a team that was this focused. They went out and competed and fought hard. It was tough competition.鈥
Scarlett Petticrew brought home the only individual title for the Lions, as she won the 5A championship in the pole vault (11-11录).
鈥淚 was happy for Scarlett,鈥 Baillargeon said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a sophomore competing against all seniors, and she did a great job to pull it out.鈥
Although the results didn鈥檛 come out the way the Lions would have liked them to, Baillargeon said his Lions 鈥渉ave no regrets.鈥
鈥淭here is disappointment because we fell short of our goal, which was to place in the top two,鈥 Baillargeon said. 鈥淏ut deep down we鈥檙e not disappointed every one of them knows they gave it their best. The sadness is only in the fact that we didn鈥檛 place in the top two. We鈥檙e not sad about the performance. There is no one wishing they could run a race over.鈥
