St. Louis completes three-peat, races to state indoor crown

Published 9:00 am Sunday, February 20, 2022

St. Louis Catholic ran away with its third consecutive girls indoor track and field state title Saturday, and Westlake’s Tristan Goodly won a pair of gold medals and set a state record at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association championships at LSU’s Carl Maddox Field house.

St. Louis scored in all 14 events and finished with 111 points. Episcopal-Baton Rouge finished second to the Saints for a third consecutive year with 65 points.

The Saints were paced by sprinter Kenzie Touchet, distance runner Ella Segura and jumper Tia Reder.

Touchet won four golds in the 60-meter hurdles (8.87 seconds), 400 (58.75), 4×200 (1:46.00, Genesis Bass, Shelby Willis, Arden Turner, Touchet) and 4×400 (4:09.17, Willis, Hannah Boullion, Segura, Touchet).

Segura medaled in three events, including gold in the 3200 with a time of 11:44.54. She was the runner-up in the 1600 (5:20.33) and third in the 800 (2:24.93).

Reder won the triple jump (36-11/2) and silver in the long jump (17-6), while Amerie Guillory took second in the shot put (35-63/4).

Goodly won the Division II boys long and triple jumps, saving his best jump till the end in each event. He set the division record in the triple jump at 48-43/4, beating the old record of 48-11/4 set by Southern Lab’s Reggie Haslem in 2006.

He almost set another record in the long jump with a personal best of 23- 1/4, 41/4 short of the record.

St. Louis’ Mason Abshire cleared 13-11/2 to win the pole vault gold.

Lake Charles College Prep was the Division II boys runner-up with 36 points, led by junior Jarell Joseph. University Lab won with 62 points. The Trailblazers won the 2021 Class 3A outdoor title.

“I think they competed,” LCCP head coach Terence Cahee said of his team. “We could always do better; our guys competed really hard.

“I think University did a great job and took advantage in some events they were not supposed to. Sometimes that is just how it goes. We were second best today, but that is nothing to hang your head on. We will continue to get better and get ready to win it again in outdoor.”

Joseph took third in the 60 (7.10) and 400 (50.41) and won gold in the 4×400 (3:33.79, Joe Ward, Trevonté Citizen, Kevin Thomas, Joseph) and silver in the 4×200 (1:33.22, Eric Beloney, Thomas, Citizen, Joseph).

Other runners-up from Southwest Louisiana included Hamilton Christian shot putter Derrick Williams (47-5), Oakdale’s Pierre Wade in the high jump (6-11/2) and LCCP’s Jayla Mason in the 400 (58.90).