By Kyle Roberts
BATON ROUGE, La. – Ruston High School’s outdoor track and field season drew to a close over the weekend with the Lady Bearcats finishing 14th and the boys finishing 19th overall, with both teams scoring 11 points overall in a meet that saw multiple delays due to weather on the campus of Louisiana State University.
“I was very proud of the way our kids handled adversity and the many lightning delays at the State championship meet Saturday,” Ruston head coach Trey Smith said. “We had some spectacular performances to start off the day after the four hour delay with our Boys and Girls 4×800 meter relay squads finishing second in both races, respectively. After such a long morning and afternoon it was so exciting to see the sunshine back in the sky and great racing on the track at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
“Throughout the day our kids competed hard and gained a lot of experience in many of their first outdoor championship races. Each race was such a joy to watch as it provided a culmination of all the work these great student-athletes had put in throughout the year.”
On the girls’ side, the 4×800 meter team of Lily Garrett, Parker Nations, Zoie Holstead and Sara Naff took second place overall with a time of 9 minutes, 42.63 seconds. Nations was also just two places shy of a podium finish in the 3200m at fifth place with a time of 11:40.46.
Garrett also finished sixth in the 800m at 2:26.63.
For the boys, the 4×800 meter team of Landon Byrd, Bryar Madden, Andrew McKaskle and Taylor Roller finished second at 7:58.80, Dylar Richmond took sixth in the 300m hurdles at 40.05.
Thomas Rogers also posted a pair of sixth place finishes in the 1600m and 3200m with times of 4:26.20 and 9:41.77, respectively.
Madden took a seventh place finish in the 800m at 1:58.88, while Aidan Anding took eighth in the long jump at 20 feet, 8.5 inches.
The 4×200 meter team of Richmond, Darius James, Jordan McWain and Kendrick Jones finished eighth at 1:28.61, while the 4×100 meter team of James, McWain, Jones and Dylone Brooks took ninth at 42.85.
Finally, the 4×400 team of Richmond, Madden, Roller and Jones finished ninth at 3:33.16.
For Smith and the team, it was also an emotional weekend with many Bearcats running for the last time in the Red and White.
“For our seniors there were a lot of smiles and tears knowing it was their last time to suit up for the Bearcats,” Smith said. “I’m so proud of the leadership and competitive spirit that our seniors Dylar Richmond, Jordan McWain, Kendrick Jones, Bryar Madden, Andrew McKaskle, and Lily Garrett displayed Saturday. I’m so excited to see them continue onto the next level in college. Our returning underclassmen are looking forward to many more trips to LSU to continue to make memories that will last a lifetime and exceed expectations in the future.”
