LOUISIANA, Mo. — The Louisiana High School track team had a great ending to the regular season and an amazing start to the postseason. The Bulldogs have many athletes who will be competing at sectionals this next Saturday. 

The Bulldogs competed at the EMO Conference track meet this past Tuesday at Wright City. Coach Tommy Fallert said, “We had a great showing for both the boys and girls programs as they both took third place overall in team points.”

 Louisiana was excited about how well they competed Tuesday and closed up the regular season. This greatly boosted their morale as they competed in the district track meet on Friday. 

Some athletes who did amazing and took home individual awards at Conference were sophomores Jordan Pedersen and Jamal Blackwell and juniors Raegan Bowser, Allison Jenkins, and Alex Dzierwa. 

For the girls’ side of things, Jordan Pedersen took second place in the 200-meter dash and took first place in the high jump. Raegan Bowser took home second place in the triple jump. Lastly, Alli Jenkins took second place in javelin. 

On the boys’ side of things, Jamal Blackwell received second place in the 110-meter hurdles and Alex Dzierwa took second place in the 300-meter hurdles. The relay teams for Louisiana also brought home some medals. 

The girls’ 4×200 meter relay took first place. The athletes on that team are Sophomore Jalaya Ries, and Jordan Pedersen, and Juniors Tyona Campbell and De’Prisha Chatman. The girls’ 4×400 meter relay took second place. The athletes on that team are freshmen Isabella Lentz, Alli Jenkins, Tyona Campbell, and Jordan Pedersen. 

For the boys’ relays, the 4×100 meters and the 4×200 meters took home medals. The 4×100-meter relay took first place. The athletes on this team are Junior Ethen Harrison, Junior D’Marko Greene, Alex Dzierwa, and Senior Jase Luck. Lastly, the 4×200 meter team took second place. The athletes on this team are senior Sheldon Silvey, Alex Dzierwa, D’Marko Greene, and Jase Luck. Congratulations to Louisiana for all of the hard work they have continuously put in this season to get to this place. 

This past Friday, Louisiana participated in the Class 2 District 2 track meet at New Haven High School. Louisiana girls took second place in the team category, and the boys came up on top to take first in the overall team category. 

Coach Fallert said, “We are very excited about our team’s potential to compete highly in almost every event we are entered in but our high jumpers, hurdlers, relays, and school record-setting javelin throwers should be competing for event district champs.” 

Fallert was right, many of them brought home medals and even some took first overall in their event category. 

The Bulldogs will be moving on to sectionals with 13 separate events. In order for them to get from district to sectionals, the athlete or relay teams need to place in the top four of their event. These are all of the athletes from Louisiana who received at least in the top four of their event and will be participating in sectionals on Saturday.  

The boys moving on to sectionals is D’Marko Green with the 100-meter dash and he placed fourth last Saturday. Jamal Blackwell placed second and Jase Luck placed fourth with the 110-meter hurdles. Alex Dzierwa placed third and Jamal Blackwell took fourth in the 300-meter hurdles category. The 4×100 meter relay took second place, the 4×200 took first, the 4×400 took fourth, and the 4×800 meter relay took third place. Jamal Blackwell received first place for high jump and second for triple jump. Joe Pitzer took first place and Dominic Hathaway took third place for the pole vault category. Lastly, Jase Luck took first and Cooper Lumely took third place for the javelin category. 

For the girls’ side of things, junior Harley Norvell took second place in the 110-meter hurdles. The girls’ 4×100 meter relay took first place with the 4×200 taking fourth. Jordan Pedersen received first place for high jump. Juniors Raegan Bowser took third place and De’Prisha Chatman took fourth place in the triple jump category. De’Prisha also received first place in the long jump category. Sophomore Kendra Sperry took second place for pole vault. Lastly, Alli Jenkins took third and freshman Alivia Perrine took fourth place in the javelin category. Congratulations to all who have done so well this past Saturday.

If you want to support the LHS Track team on their journey to state, the sectionals will take place Saturday, May 13 at New Haven High School. The first event of the day will start around 9:30 am. For more times of events on Saturday, visit the Missouri State High School Activities Association website.