By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Six East St. John Wildcats took top 10 finishes this past weekend at the All-State Sugar Bowl Track and Field competition, while one Hahnville Tiger netted a top finish overall.

The two-day event perennially draws a deep pool of competition, and this year was no different. The Tigers’ Rickia Preston proved to be the best of the best in the girls’ shotput competition, notching a throw of 37-06.25, and beating out Houston’s Brittany Grandberry (37-01.00).

Among girls in the track events, the Wildcats’ Jacobi Wilson finishes ninth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 12.80. She paired that with a ninth place finish in the 400 (1:01.04).

ESJ’s Deznee Wilson took 11th in the 200-meter (27.34).

ESJ’s Christy Joseph gave a good accounting of herself in the field events, finishing sixth overall in the discus throw (85-00).

In the boys’ track event, ESJ’s Quinton Johnson kept busy, netting himself a seventh place finish in the 200-meter (23.24), and a 12th place finish in the 100 (11.53).

DeMon Eley took 10th place in the 110 meter hurdles (17.10), and 15th in the 300 meter hurdles (46.24)

In the boys’ field events, Patrick Lewis took a sixth overall finish in the shotput (49-05.25), while Alex Singleton took 10th in the javelin (153-04).

“Patrick did well, we’re hoping he’s able to break 50 by season’s end,” said ESJ boys’ track Coach Eleno Rodriguez. “Alex looks to be back on track, which is good news.”

Hahnville’s Ta’Nesha Steib took a third place finish in the girls’ long jump (17-04), a year after taking first place in the event. The Tigers’ Katona James notched seventh in the javelin (102-09).

The Ladycats’ girls relay team impressed, taking fourth place in the 4×100 meter event. Jacobi Wilson, Darichelle Sampson, Dynekia Sanders and Deznee Wilson comprised the team, which ran a time of 50.00. It edged out Hahnville’s fifth place unit, which consisted of Constance Mitchell, Aspen Jack, Ariel Jupiter and Princetta Cummings.

The same ESJ team would place 11th in the 4×200 with a time of 1:49.83. Hahnville’s team finished fifth with a time of 1:45.25.

Hoover took the overall boys’ team crown, outscoring second place Wakefield 75-59. East St. John finished 27th.

St. Paul’s took the overall girls’ title with 95 points, outpacing Hoover, which scored 63. Hahnville narrowly missed the top 10, finishing 11th with 19.5 points. East St. John finished 23rd.

Rodriguez said that while his Wildcats didn’t do as well as he would have liked, much of that was attributable to a rash of injuries that weakened the roster. That said, he expects a different story today at Lutcher’s meet.

“I was proud of our effort,” said Rodriguez. “We should be closer to full strength later this week, and I hope to do much better. We just want to get where we need to be before district.”