A good day to run

IOTA -- The Ville Platte girls’ and boys’ track teams put in strong showings Thursday afternoon at the District 5-3A meet held at Iota High School.
The girls finished second overall with 132 points and the boys finished third with 101 points.
Opelousas-area school Northwest won both meets with 136 points.
However, it was an especially good day for Ville Platte girls’ athletes Kayden Coward and Vandryua Wilson.
Coward took home first-place finishes in both high jump and long jump, with jumps of 4’8” and 15’8” in the respective events. Wilson took firsts in the 1600M and 3200M runs, with times of 6:21.71 and 14:27.37.
“I’ve always idolized (basketball star) Kobe (Bryant),” Wilson said. “That Mamba Mentality. Just working hard to do the best I can.”
Ville Platte track coach Roy Serie was proud of his teams’ effort despite their less-fortunate practice conditions.
“Just really proud of these kids,” Serie said. “We don’t have a track like other schools do to practice. So, when it rains we can’t practice and we’ve had a lot of rain lately.”
Performers like Adonis Thomas and Michael Berry were able to buoy the boys team for Ville Platte. Thomas won the 110M hurdles with a time of 18.83 and Berry the high jump with a 6’0” leap.
Other athletes who represented Evangeline Parish included Pine Prairie’s Asia George (1st, girl’s triple jump, 33’8”), George (2nd, girl’s 200M, 26.44), Coward (3rd, girl’s 100M, 13.00), Pine Prairie’s Josiah Ortis (2nd, boy’s high jump, 5’10”), Pine Prairie’s Auston Bass (2nd, boy’s javelin, 135’), Pine Prairie’s Wyatt Welch (3rd, boy’s javelin, 128’3”), Ville Platte’s Jakalion Fontenot (3rd, boy’s triple jump), 37’9.75”), Pine Prairie’s Lucas Ricks (3rd, boy’s long jump, 19’4.5”), Mamou’s Jonathon Downs (2nd, boy’s 300M hurdles, 45.78), Ricks (2nd, 110M hurdles, 18.90) and Trinton Pitre (2nd and 3rd, 3200M and 1600M, 12:22.83 and 5:17.35).
In other team results, Pine Prairie finished 4th in the girls meet with 83 points and 5th in the boys meet with 86 points. Mamou went scoreless in the girls meet and finished 6th in the boys meet with 36 points.