BATON ROUGE — West St. John High School track coach Ulysses Frontha knew his team would have a difficult task last weekend.

The Rams’ chances at repeating as Class 2A state runner-up were already slim, but their chances of taking the title moved closer to none with the loss of Austin Alexander.

The senior sprinter, who won last year’s 100 meter dash to become the only local track state champion, reinjured a hamstring while competing at the regional meet in April, forcing him to skip Friday’s competition.

“We lost about 30 points right there,” Frontha said. “We would have had an outside chance if he’d have been there, but without him, we didn’t have high expectations. That took us out of all the relays too.”

The meet also was Frontha’s last as head coach of the Rams. The longtime coach, who won a state championship at Huntington High School 1988 and led the Rams to a runner-up finish last year, announced his retirement (again) this week.

“I won’t say I’ll never coach again, but this is it for me,” he said.

St. John the Baptist Parish still had a strong showing at the state meet.

Riverside’s boys finished tied for fifth. West St. John finished tied for seventh. St. Charles Catholic had no state qualifiers.

Riverside’s girls tied for ninth and St. Charles Catholic tied for 32nd. West St. John had no girls state qualifiers.

West St. John’s Marcus Boudoin was second in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of  14.57 seconds, and the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 39.18 seconds. Both were personal bests. Boudoin was the district and regional champion in both events.

The Rams had won the regional in the 4×100 meter relay with a time of 44.29, but did not compete in the event at state after Alexander withdrew.

They also won the 4×200 meter relay at regionals with a time of 1:31.36, just ahead of Riverside’s 1:33.09 and St. Charles Catholic’s 1:34.04, but finished fifth at state with a time of 1:33.20

After winning the 200, finishing second in the 100 and running on a winning relay team, Riverside Academy’s Toni Perrin was named the track MVP at regionals.

At state she was third in the 200 with a time of 26.20 and sixth in the 100 with a time of 12.86.

Carli Hymel was sixth in the hurdles with a time of 16.67. Kacie Becnel was fourth in the javelin with a throw of 107-8.

The Riverside relay team was second in the 4×100 meter relay with a time of 51.16 and sixth in the 4×200 relay with a time of 1:51.54.

St. Charles Catholic’s Kayla Johnson was sixth in the 400 with a time of 1:03.40.

In the boys competition, Riverside’s Jalen Banks was second in the 400 meter dash with a time of 49.74.

He had won the regional with a time of 50.52, edging West St. John’s Trenton Grows (52.54).

Cameron Cook was third in the discus with a throw of 131 feet, 7 inches. He had finished second at regionals with a throw of 128-3.

The Rebels’ 4×400 relay team was third at state with a time of 3:28.01.

East St. John  finished with four points in the boys competition and two points in the girls competition. Terius Taranto was fourth in the triple jump with a jump of 44-2.5.

The girls relay team of Angelique Johnson, La’Deja Harris, Iriel Crouch and Troynisha Gerard finished fifth in the 4×100 with a time of 49.05 and ninth in the 4×200 with a time of 1:44.92.