Lake Charles claims two state titles, St. Louis girls runaway winners; LCCP boys shares with Madison Prep

Rodrick Anderson

The St. Louis Catholic girls ran away with the Class 3A state title Friday behind a record-setting performance by Halyn Senegal at the track and field championships in Baton Rouge, while Lake Charles College Prep shared the boys title with Madison Prep.

St. Louis finished with 116 points, beating runner-up E.D. White by 50 points and sweeping the indoor and outdoor state titles. It was the Saints’ fifth girls outdoor state championship and first since 2014 and the school’s 52nd overall team title and fifth this school year.

Senegal set the Class 3A 400-meter run record at 54.89 seconds, shaving .20 seconds off the time set by Amite’s Latonia Wilson in 2003.

LCCP won its first state championship in any sport. The Trailblazers trailed District 4-3A rival Iowa, which finished third, until Dillon Simon’s fifth-place sprint in the 200 gave them a 54-52 lead over Madison Prep.

Madison Prep took second in the final event, the 4×400 relay, to force the tie after LCCP came in fourth.

LCCP senior Marcus Francis had a big day, winning the discus (135-4), plus the silver medal in the shot put (49-1 3/4).

The Trailblazers team of JaRell Joseph, Simon, Trevonte Citizen and Thaddeus Campbell won the 4×200 (1:27.36), .22 seconds ahead of Iowa. But the Yellow Jackets edged LCCP in the 4×100 by .16 seconds. McQuinton Montgomery, Curtis Deville, Crajuan Bennett and Brycen Leblanc clocked in at 41.85 seconds.

Campbell was the runnerup in the triple jump (43-7 3/4) and 300 hurdles (38.98).

Westlake sophomore Tristan Goodly became the third in his family to win a triple jump state championship. Goodly set a personalbest mark of 46-5 1/2. His brother, Xavier, won the event in 2019, and his father Arthur won in 1996.

St. Louis scored 36 points in the relays, winning the 4×200 (1:43.49, Genesis Bass, Tia Reder, Shelby Willis, Kenzie Touchet) and 4×400 (3:59.04, Emma Karam, Maci Fontenot, Senegal, Touchet). The Saints were runner-up in the 4×100 and 4×800.

Also for the Saints, Emma Freeman defended her discus state title with a throw of 121-101/4.

Five teams broke the Class 3A record in the boys 4×800, including St. Louis (8:19.74) and Iowa (8:24.57), but University Lab set the top mark at 8:18.45. The old record was 8:29.32 set by Lusher Charter in 2019.

South Beauregard’s Trinity Spooner was bested by Parkview Baptist’s Ariel Pedigo in her quest to repeat at the 3A javelin champion. Spooner took second at 135-6 and Pedigo had the top throw at 141-7. Pedigo also the long (19-0) and high jump (5-10) champion.

St. Louis’ Ivan Appleton placed second in the 3,200 (9:46.15) and third in the 1,600 (4:36.78), while Iowa’s Crajuan Bennett was runner-up in the 100 (10.75), .04 seconds behind Sumner’s Richard Lee (10.71).

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St. Louis Catholic’s Halyn Senegal set the 400-meter dash Class 3A record Friday at 54.89 seconds.

Rodrick Anderson / American Press file photo

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