By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD – Ebony Brown, Arnelle Jack and all three West St. John girls’ track and field relay squads highlighted a second place finish for the Lady Rams at Tuesday’s District 8-1A track and field meet at West St. John, the first meet at the school in the last seven years.

The meet was held on WSJ’s brand new state-of-the-art track that boasts eight lanes with a Mondo Super X, 14mm track surface, the same that has been installed at Joe Keller Stadium. The schools each went over six years without a useable home track.

“It’s definitely exciting,” said West St. John boys’ track coach Antoine Carter. “From what I understand, the yearly track meet here used to be the meet to be at. So this represents a chance to start that tradition again at West St. John.”

St. John of Plaquemine walked away with the district title, posting a score of 164 points to West St. John’s 109. Ascension Catholic took third with 101.

The Rams finished fourth on the boys side with a score of 80. White Castle won the event, outpacing Ascension Catholic 149-128.

LaDarius Lewis highlighted the boys’ day with a first place finish in the high jump, boasting a high leap of 6-02.

Jack finished first in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 17.04, and first in the triple jump with a leap of 28-11.50. She also participated in the 4×1 and 4×2 relay squads that captured first place finishes. The 4×1 team ran a time of 55.54 and also included Latisha Jupiter, Elisha Grows and Jennika Jones. The 4×2 team finished with a time of 2:06.52 and was comprised of the same four athletes.

The 4×400 squad of Joy Triche, Deja Feist, Candace Roussell and Jones finished first with a time of 5:11.34.

Brown took first place in the shot put with a heave of 31-11.

Tahajanik Howard and Jones finished second and third respectively in the javelin, with throws of 95-02 and 90-08.

Ronnie Feist finished second (47-02.50) and Steven Brignac finished third (40-11) in the boys’ shot put.

Other top three finishers for the West St. John boys included: Jeremy Jackson (third, 100 and 200); Tevin Smith (third, 3200); LaDarius Lewis (second, 300 hurdles); the 4×100 relay team (second, Denzel Pierre, Jeremy Jackson, Quan Scott and Darzil Washington);the 4×200 relay (Lewis, Pierre, Kylum Favorite and Jackson) and the 4×400 relay (third, Trey Nathan, Olajuwan Pierre, Kylon Adams and Lewis).

“I thought we did better than expected,” said Carter. “We had some kids that didn’t finish the season toward the end, and some young kids really stepped up for them. Guys like Kylon Adams, Trey Nathan, Kylum Favorite, Jeremy Jackson, sophomores and freshman. That makes me excited going forward.”

Other top finishers among Lady Rams were: Elisha Grows (third, 100 and second, 200) and Amber Howard (third, discus).