By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

The East St. John girls’ track and field team followed up a first place finish in the South Terrebonne Gator relays with another strong performance at the All-State Sugar Bowl track meet, finishing fourth overall against a highly competitive field.

“We’re rounding into form,” said East St. John coach Quinton Bradley. “It’s been an uphill climb. But we keep getting better and better every day. We faced a lot of some good out of state competition at this meet. Some freshman stepped up for us and some of our kids posted some personal record.”

Deznee Wilson finished second in the 200 with a time of 25.39 and fifth in the 100 (12.43). Darichelle Sampson finished third in the 100 (12.36) and fifth in the 200 (25.76). Journae King finished third in the triple jump (35-11) and sixth in the long jump (16-11).

Bradley said that Wilson and King each set career bests in the 200 and the triple jump respectively.

Two Ladycat relay teams came away with second place finishes. The 4×100 relay team (Wilson, Sampson, King and Dominique White) placed second with a time of 49.22. The same group also competed in the 4×200, taking second with a time of 1:44.16.

“These girls want to be the best and everyone’s working for that goal,” said Bradley. “I think we’ll get there. For now, I’m very happy with where we are.”

East St. John returns to action Friday at Destrehan.

West St. John competed at the West Feliciana meet Friday, the boys’ squad’s performance highlighted by LaDarius Lewis’ first place finish in the 300-meter hurdles.

Ronnie Feist finished fourth in the shotput (44-3).

West St. John coach Antoine Carter said that his team has seen top level competition all season and, though inexperienced, has made a good accounting of themselves.

“Hopefully we’ll be peaking by district so we can make a run at the district title,” said Carter.

Carter said that Lewis’ first place finish is part of the culmination of an athlete who has improved his performance steadily throughout the season.

“He’s consistently gotten better every meet,” said Carter.

“And I’m expecting that to continue in our next meet. We’ll see how it goes.”