Trio of schools compete at meet

Berwick led the Tri-City area teams in state cross country action this week, returning home with an eighth-place finish, while Central Catholic had a runner place the highest among local participants.
Berwick placed eighth in Class 3A during Tuesday’s meet with 259 points.
Berwick coach Camille Izaguirre said she thought her teams’ finish in the meet, won by John Curtis with 25 points, was a good one because, “I think we’re competing against the best in the state.”
As for individuals, she said her runners were proud of themselves and she was proud of them as well, noting they gave everything they had.
“Whenever they finished, they had nothing left,” Izaguirre said. “They couldn’t talk to me for 10 minutes because they were spent. That’s the goal.”
Neal Theriot led the Berwick runners with a 21st place finish, clocking in with a time of 18:03.67.
Other Berwick participants included André Adams, 52nd, 19:25.34; Austin Doise, 61st, 19:47.68; Chad Vining, 85th, 21:13.40; Cameron Perera, 88th, 21:23.12; Nate Furlett, 104th, 22:15.85; and Ryan Davidson, 117th, 24:43.07.
Central Catholic had the area’s top runner in Sal Grizzaffi, who placed seventh in Monday’s Class 1A meet with a time of 17:54.31.
His coach, Chris Theriot, noted that Grizzaffi improved on a 20th place finish as a sophomore.
“We’re happy with that,” Theriot said. “The rest of the team has a little bit of work to do.”
Theriot said with Grizzaffi’s improvement, he was hopeful next year, the then-senior will be vying for a top-three finish.
As a team, Central Catholic placed 12th with 319 points.
Other participants for the Eagles were Dakota Lux, 81st, 25:02.55; Braxton Alcina, 93rd, 27:01.31; Jack Autrey, 100th, 36:15.37; and Dave Laubach, 101, 37:40.15.
In Class 4A, Morgan City had both male and female runners participate in their respective meets in the school’s firststate meet since bringing back cross country this year.
The boy’s squad finished 19th with 618 points, while the girl’s squad placed 20th with 612 points.
Coach James Fontenot said he was proud of his squad, which didn’t have as much practice as others who may practice year-round, for sticking with cross country.
He noted that they showed character, because they still ran at state even though they knew they were going to struggle.
Fontenot said that his squad had just one senior, Savannah Loupe, and the squad featured multiple runners who had not participated in sports before.
In boys’ action, Logan Fontenot led the locals with a 150th finish (23:49.68), while other runners included Jonathan Jones, 153rd, 24:32.71; Gregory Balance, 157th, 24:52.87; Zeth Aucoin, 160th, 26:01.57; and Ledezma Omar, 161st, 28:12.85.
In girls’ action, Savannah Loupe led the Lady Tigers with a 119th place finish in 27:11.28, while Ayana Allen, 131st, 31:28.85; Ocean Armond, 132nd, 31:35.97; Cianna Armond, 140th, 36:14.76; Kaylynn Pousson, 141st, 36:16.66; and Rebekah Flenner, 142nd, 42:58.62.