Patterson's 4x4 places 5th at state track and field meet

Patterson High School had just one Class 3A entrant at Saturday’s portion of the 2016 Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA Track & Field State Meet, but the school’s 4x400-meter relay made the most of its opportunity.
Patterson came into the event at LSU’s Bernie Moore Track Stadium seeded sixth and came out fifth in the competition. The team ran a personal best of 3:31.08. The Lumberjacks quartet consisted of junior Ian Hayes, seniors Anthony Gant and De’sabrian Benjamin, and junior Dillan Giandelone.
Patterson Track and Field coach Marvin Dantzler said he was proud of his relay.
“Anytime you can move up, that’s always something positive, and I think it was a great experience because we have two of those guys coming back,” he said. “Ian Hayes is also a junior along with Dillon Giandelone, so it was a good experience for those two guys. I think we can take that into our offseason next year.”
Dantzler, who took over the track program in March and didn’t have a lot of time to work with the team, said he is looking forward to the offseason and seeing what the team can do next year.
Glen Oaks won the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:24.25, while Franklin took third with a time of 3:26.02.
Franklin’s team consisted of Todrick Toussaint, Kyran Webb, Dominique Henry and Ervin Collins.
Patterson finished the meet in a four-way tie for 29th place in team scoring with Albany, Buckeye and Port Allen with two points. Franklin finished 11th in team scoring with 24 points.
West Feliciana won the Class 3A team title with 59.5 points, while Jewel Sumner and Patterson’s District 8-3A opponent, E.D. White, tied for the runner-up spot with 38 points.