By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

LAPLACE – With Larayo’s park transformed into a western township for this weekend’s River Parish Swim League Invitational, the home team galloped from start to finish as the defending champion Barracudas swam to the title in Sunday’s finals. And considering the theme of the meet, it was rather appropriate that some of Larayo’s biggest guns came through in a meet entitled &#8220Shootout at the ole swimmin’ hole.”

Results for the meet were unavailable as of press time. Team standings were released with Larayo taking first overall, LaVacherie placing second, Riverlands third and Belle Terre fourth. Full results of the invitational will be printed in Saturday’s sports section.

Events for the tournament meet began Friday afternoon with the preliminaries and ran through Sunday culminating in the championships. Spotty downpours provided several rain delays throughout the weekend, but things stayed pretty close to schedule in the LaPlace park.

Spirits remained buoyed as well with fans and swimmers gathering underneath the tent city that had been erected on the park’s tennis courts and back lot. And they needed every bit of it to house swimmers and fans from Belle Terre, Riverlands, Sun Villa, Houma, LaVacherie, Hill Heights and Luling.

Sunday’s action had the pool swimming with Barracudas as Larayo’s swimmers had qualified or led the field in many of the strokes on Friday and Saturday. The final relays wrapped things up for the competition just before evening with Larayo earning the title.