Devin King, Aleia Hobbs get it done in La.
State Meet Highlights
The Louisiana state championships are conducted over three days at Louisiana State University. The small B and C schools went first, then 2A and 1A, and finally 3A/4A/5A on Saturday. Three different boys achieved top-10 US marks in three different jumping events.
Top Performances:
- Although Brandon Bray TX got attention-grabbing headlines for his US#1 17-8.50, Devin King of Sumner jumped 17-8 on the same day. King is the indoor national record holder who may have bigger jumps yet to come this spring.
- Willie Reed of Lusher, a 6-10 high jumper in 2013, recorded a wind-legal US#8 24-3.25 long jump in the Class 3A meet. He also won the HJ at 6-6 and was fourth in the 110 hurdles.
- Daquan Bellard of Opelousas won 4A titles in the long and triple jumps. And his triple jump of 49-6 is US#4.
- Aleia Hobbs of McMain Magnet, running on her future home track at LSU, ran US#4 11.49 to win the 3A 100 and also ran a windy (3.8) 23.86 to win the 200.
- Mikiah Brisco of Baton Rouge dominated the 5A sprints with 11.55 (2.8 wind), US#19 24.07 and US#24 14.02 in the 100 hurdles. Brisco will be Hobbs' teammate at LSU.
Top Teams:
Freshman sensation Janie O'Connor won the 400 (55.10) and was second to Brisco in the 200 (24.18) to help Zachary to the 5A girls title. O'Connor was also on two relays, and Kenyetta Franklin was a big part of the effort, too. Zachary scored 51 points to edge Baton Rouge and nailed it down with a second place 4x400 relay. St. Scholastica won the 4A girls title and St. Louis won 3A.
Baton Rouge Catholic pulled 72 points out of the field events (out of a 103 total) to win the Class 5A boys title. Opelousas won Class 4A, edging Benton by two points; Curtis won Class 3A.
Top Competition: The boys 4A 4x200 relay was a close one, with Northside edging Edna Karr 1:27.41 to 1:27.48.
Record-breakers: King topped out at 17-8, which was a Class 3A meet record. But he's still short of the all-time state best. That belongs to Greg DuPlantis, who went 17-11.75 back in 1981. (Duplantis' son, Mondo, enters the high school scene next fall).
Notable: The girls 5A long jump included a strong competition and an interesting set of circumstances. Morgan White of C.E. Byrd won the event with 18-8, but her best mark came with a 3.5 meters/second wind reading. Second-place finisher Diamond Washington of West Jefferson jumped 18-4.75 but her jump was wind-legal. So, White gets the win. Washington goes into TFX with Louisiana's No. 1 ranking.
Results:
http://parser.dyestat.com/meets.jsp?state=LA
