BATON ROUGE — West St. John track coach Ulysses Frontha called it an early day at the State Track Meet at LSU Friday.

Having brought only seven athletes with him to Baton Rouge, Frontha figured he didn’t have much of a shot at any team awards on the day, so he and his team left early.

While gathering up his youngsters for the trip home, he joked to a friend, “If I win something, pick it up for me.”

The Rams were about halfway home to Edgard when that friend called Frontha to say, “Coach, they’re asking for a representative from West St. John. I think you took second.”

Frontha was stunned.

“I told him to go up and pretend he was me and accept it for me and I’d get it from him later,” Frontha said.

The next day, Frontha returned to Baton Rouge to watch the action and, in a meeting in the parking lot, Mark Creecy presented the third year coach of the Rams with their second state runner-up trophy in school history. They earned it while overcoming low numbers, lower than expected finishes and a huge injury.

It is West St. John’s best finish since 2008, when the Rams finished as Class 1A runner-up to Southern Lab. This was the team’s first year competing in Class 2A.

“I’m very excited,” said Frontha, who led Destrehan to one runner-up finish. He also earned three while a coach at Huntington High in the 1980s, along with two state championships.

The Rams were no match for Episcopal of Baton Rouge, which ran away with the title after accumulating 96 points. West St. John but managed to cull together 36 points for the second place spot. Riverside Academy finished with 21 points for 10th place and St. Charles Catholic finished with one point.

“We knew nobody would catch Episcopal,” Frontha said. “They had multiple competitors in multiple events. I thought we might have a shot at second or third if we could put together enough points. About halfway through the day I looked around and no one was scoring any points.”

Junior speedster Austin Alexander did, winning the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.95 to become the only St. John the Baptist Parish individual to win a state championship.

“I’m so happy for him,” Frontha said.

“He was a runner-up last year, he’s been runner-up to Kie’Ave (Harry) all year. He deserved it.”

Alexander didn’t just leave with a state championship medal, however. He also left with a hamstring injury, pulling up at the end of the 100. That left him unable to compete in his best event — the 200 meters.

“He begged us to let him run,” Frontha said. “He wanted to run, but he was limping all over the place. In the end, we said no. The kids are more important to me.”

Alexander did run on the Rams’ 4×200 meter relay team, which finished sixth. He was unable to run on the 4×100 meter relay. His alternate, Lamore Boudin, replaced him and the team finished second with a time of 43.45.

Injury also East St. John. Senior Da’Monte Coxie, who was expected to contend in the long jump, was injured while practicing for the event. Coxie said he tore his meniscus and underwent surgery May 2.

“I’m OK,” the LSU football commit said. “I was disappointed, but I had to look at the bigger picture.”