BATON ROUGE — If winning a state championship is wonderful, sweeping a pair of titles is twice as nice.
And the Ruston High School boys track and field team knows exactly how that feels proving for a second straight year they are the top indoor track and field team in Louisiana as they earned Division I championships at LSU’s Carl Maddox Field House this weekend.
Ruston edged past runner-up Catholic of Baton Rouge by one point, 59-58.
RHS head coach Allen Whitaker said that it came down to playing a little track and field chess to come up with a title-winning strategy.
“I was very confident in what I thought we could do,” Whitaker said of his boys team. “We looked at the point spread on the boys side and we knew it would end up coming down to the 4X4 (1,600-meter relay). We knew the points we had to pick up in certain events, and we knew to have a chance on the boys side was to do well in the 4×4.”
The Bearcats’ 4X4 relay team of Joshua Anding, Brady Beason, Carsen McPherson and Josiah Whitaker ran the 1,600m at 3:26.77, a second-place finisher to Catholic-Baton Rouge (3:26.46). But that second-place provided enough points for Ruston to earn the overall win.
The Bearcats’ BJ Green played a major role on the boy’s side, taking a trio of first-place finishes in the long jump (23-5.25), the triple jump (51-6.25), and the high jump (7.14m), setting a personal record in the latter. Green also took fifth place in the 60m hurdles with a personal best 8.36.
Ruston’s 3,200m relay team of Andrew McKaskle, Caleb Babineaux, Nelson Blackburn and Bryan Madden turned in a second-place time of 8:21.20 while Anding added a third-place finish in the 400m run (51.08) with McPherson taking fourth (51.27).
In the individual 1,600m event, Babineaux placed second with a time of 4:22.19 while Ruston’s Thomas Rogers finished sixth in the 3,200m at 9:47.26.
Ruston’s boys team of McPherson, McClinton, Beason and Jaden Osbourne added a sixth-place showing in the 800m relay with a finish of 1:32.19.
In the individual 1,600m event, Babineaux placed second with a time of 4:33.19 while Thomas Rogers finished sixth in the 3,200m at 9:47.26.
Ruston’s 800m relay team of McPherson, McClinton, Beason and Osbourne added a sixth-place showing with a finish of 1:32.19.
Whitaker said that not long after the event, he received a phone call from former RHS track and field coach Dave Anderson, himself a former state title-winning coach for the Bearcats.
“He called me after the meet,” Whitaker said. “He gave us a chance to take some pictures and take some calls from other people, but he called me shortly after. He’s proud of us and such a wonderful supporter. He said he was driving up in Arkansas trying to follow the meet. He’s excited for us, and that means a lot to this program.”
Whitaker also said winning a second-straight indoor title adds fuel to the fire to defend the 2021 outdoor state championship they earned.
“It gives us momentum,” Whitaker said. “The guys want to double again. The girls just won their first championship ever. The kids don’t want to go backwards. It gives us momentum going into the outdoor season to go ahead and try to accomplish another one.”
