Midland's Rebels place second at regional meet

Midland's Logan Leblanc and Lacassine's Tyler Gaston

Photo by: Chris Quebedeaux

WELSH – Heading into Tuesday’s Class B Region III Track and Field Championships, Midland coach Todd Briley knew his team would have to perform better than they did a week earlier at the District 7-B meet.
The good thing was that his team knew it as well.
The result: Midland PR’ed (personal records) in four events and finished the meet in second place with 77 points behind regional champion Lacassine with 117.
“The kids ran well today,” said Briley following the meet. “They worked real hard in the week leading up to the meet and it showed today. It used to be that we had kids always trying to get out of running track, but now we have kids that are working hard and taking pride in what they are doing.”
Logan LeBlanc was Midland’s top finisher on the day, winning the 110-hurdles (17.40) and the 300-hurdles (42.46, PR).
“Logan is someone that we can always count on to run well,” said Briley. “He has done well the last few years in the hurdles and we kind of expect that out of him now.”
LeBlanc also ran the anchor leg of the winning 4x400-meter relay team with Chris Guillotte, Myles Sonnier and Colby Gantt. Their time of 3:38.66 was also a season best.
Garreth Louvierre joined Guillotte, Gantt and Sonnier on the 4x200-meter relay team to place third with a time of 1:39.04. Gantt also qualified for the state meet in the 400-meter run with a second-place time of 52.62, also a personal best.
Eighth-grader Michael Primeaux also continued to impress, placing second in the 3200-meter run (11:06.85). He narrowly missed qualifying in the 1600 with a fourth-place showing (5:03.32).
Guillotte also qualified in the 800-meter run with a third place time of 2:12.54.
In the field events, Blaceson Gass advanced to state in both the shot put and the discus. His mark of 42-5 in the shot put was good enough for second place while his throw of 117-1 placed third in the discus.
On the girls’ side, Midland finished tied with Hosanna for sixth place with 42 points.
Episcopal School of Acadiana won the meet with 98 points. The Lady Falcons were followed by Lacassine (86) and Bethany (77). Bell City and Holden tied for fourth with 53 points each.
Tresa Guidry was the Lady Rebels’ top individual finisher, placing second in the discus with a toss of 89-9. Patricia Garrie placed third in the triple jump with a mark of 30-4 1/4 and Carissa Richard just missed qualifying for state with a fourth-place finish in the high jump (4-8).
In the relays, the team of Ramsey Falcon, Jenna Hargrave, Garrie and Heidi Boudreaux placed second in the 4x100 (54.28) and the 4x200 (1:53.98).
The top three finishers from each event qualified for the Class B state meet that will be held next Friday at LSU’s Bernie Moore Staduim. Field events are slated to begin at 12:15 p.m. with the running events to follow at 5 p.m.