Berwick sending competitors in 7 events to state meet

The Berwick High School track and field team will bring a larger-than-normal group to Saturday’s Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA Track & Field meet for classes 3A, 4A and 5A at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
Berwick, which competes in Class 3A, will send competitors in seven events.
Headlining the group is sophomore Kenan Jones. Jones will participate in the long jump, the high jump and the triple jump. Jones enters state seeded second in the triple jump (46 feet, 0.5 inches), tied for third in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 4 inches and fourth in the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 2.75 inches.
“He’s special,” Berwick Track and Field coach Paul Gilder said of Jones. “It’s nice to have someone with that athletic ability but I guess even more than that is he’s pretty humble. You got to have this confidence level, but he’s still humble.”
Jontre Kirklin of Lutcher has the top mark in the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 5.5 inches, while Parkview Baptist’s Brennan Dorsey has the top high jump mark at 6-feet, 6-inches. Ryan Theyard of Lusher Charter has the top mark in the triple jump with a leap of 47 feet, 5 inches.
This season, Jones broke two school records — the long jump mark and the triple jump record. Both were at least 30 years old. Jones broke his triple jump record twice since them.
His personal record in the long jump is 22 feet, 6-inches, while his personal record in the high jump is 6 feet, 8 inches. His triple jump personal record was 46 feet, 0.5 inches.
Other competitors for Berwick include sophomore Ian Valdez in the 3,200-meter run, junior Orry Arcemont in the javelin, sophomore Tyus Jones in the 800-meter run and Berwick’s 4x400-meter relay.
Valdez is seeded third in the 3,200-meter run heading to state with a time of 10:27.60. Austin Ballow of Jewel Sumner has the top seed in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 9:55.06.
Gilder said Valdez could have made it in the 1,600, too but chose to pull out in the 1,600 to focus on the 3,200.
Gilder said Valdez’s goal is under 10 minutes at state, and while Gilder said it is hard to get it, he will have a great time.
His personal record was a 10:16, which he achieved at district
“He works extremely hard,” Gilder said. “You’ll see him running around the neighborhood. If you live in Berwick, you’re going to see Ian Valdez running around.”
Tyus Jones has a time of 2:04.64 in the 800-meter run, which ranks fifth among competitors at state.
“Tyus, he’s very talented … He’s got untapped potential, and if he would just look to get to that next level, never know what he could do,” Gilder said.
Berwick’s coach said he think Tyus Jones has the ability to run under 2 minutes in the event.
Austin James of Jewel Sumner has the top mark with a time of 1:58.84.
Arcemont, a junior, is tied for fourth going into state with Thaddeus Wattis of Lutcher as both have thrown 159 feet, 6 inches. However, Arcemont has thrown 171 feet, nine inches this season.
“He works hard,” Gilder said of Arcemont. He wants to do extremely well.”
Tzuriel Pedigo of Parkview Baptist leads the javelin contingent with a toss of 170 feet, nine inches.
Berwick’s 4x400-meter relay enters state with a time of 3:33.42, good enough for seventh among entrants. Team members include freshman Barrett Hover, junior Larenz Clark, freshman Alvin Jones and Tyus Jones.
Berwick’s 4x400-meter relay made a change at district when senior Austin Doise, who had run on the relay all year, elected to give up his spot to freshman Barrett Hover, Gilder said.
“That’s kind of a class act that he is,” Gilder said Doise. “Barrett’s a little faster, and we ran five seconds faster than our fastest time of the year.”
A fourth-place finish qualified them for regionals. However, with one of their legs injured, alternate Kenan Jones stepped in at regionals, although he wasn’t at 100 percent health, Gilder, said and led off the relay. They finished third and qualified for state.
Glen Oaks is the top seed with a time of 3:25.32.
Saturday’s field events for classes 3A, 4A and 5A start Saturday at 10:45 a.m., while the running competitions for all three classes will begin at 2:30 p.m.