Current Postal Championship Team Leaders

We have one more week until the end of the regular season here in Louisiana and as teams wrap up their seasons, this is the last update on the team postal championship race.  The state champions will be posted after the outdoor state championship has been completed at LSU.  If you believe that there are results that would affect the rankings that are not recorded, please contact myself or Pat.

Girls D1 (4A-5A):  Current leader is Parkway High School out of Shreveport.  The rock of their team is Alison Ringle who has posted an 11:09 this year at the Viking Relays, good for #8 all time in the state according to the Milesplit rankings.  Teammates of hers include Destiny McGaffey and Jessica McGuffee, both at 12:26 at the Benton Relays and Cassidy Cummings with a 12:58 from the Sugar Bowl Classic.  Rounding out the last spot on the team is Rylie McConnell at 13:20, a time from the McNeese I meet indoors.  Several other girls teams have posted great marks for their top athletes, but none have more than three girls with marks posted in the 3200.

Girls D2 (C-3A):  Current leader is Menard of Alexandria.  Interestingly for Menard, the majority of the best times posted for them come from the indoor season where Mallory Robichaux ran 11:45 at the LSU Last Chance meet, Grace Ahrens ran 12:04 at the Indoor State meet, and Kelly Robichaux ran 13:39 at the Indoor State meet as well.  The two times posted outdoors contributing to their number one ranking include two marks from the Natchitoches Central Chief Relays from Miranda Hawthorne and Anne Standley running 13:39 and 13:42 respectively.  Menard has a comfortable lead over Ascension Catholic of Donaldsonville who is currently second in team standings.  There is one team that can steal the thunder from Menard, though, and that team is Sacred Heart of New Orleans.  Times currently posted for Sacred Hearts top girls include 12:07, 12:08, 12:19, and 14:05 but Caroline Bloemer who has a PR of 12:17 is yet to run a 3200 this season.  Could she race the 3200 late in the season to give SH the state title?

Boys D1 (4A-5A):  Like cross country, this season has been a formality for St. Paul's of Covington whose senior laden squad has a large advantage over every other school in their division.  Zachary Albright ran a 9:10 to solidify himself in the halls of LA distance running history with his great race at the Texas Relays and is followed by two other sub 10 runners on his team with freshman Eric Coston and Don Lipani at 9:23 and 9:33 respectively (converted from 2 miles at Mobile Meet of Champions).  Albright's younger brother, Spencer, is barely off the sub 10 club with a 10:00 from the Indoor State Championship meet.  Finishing the team top 5 out for SPS is another freshman, Patrick Napier, with an 11:22.  While this year the 5th person time does not best reflect the depth of the team at SPS, you can expect a few names of junior high athletes to fill the ranks of the seniors who will be gone next year.  The next best team on the list is a darkhorse to win the state XC title next year, Jesuit.  Catholic High could be expected to be high up on this list as well, but results have been hard to find.

Boys D2 (C-3A):  This race is a bit closer than the D1 race, but John Curtis of River Ridge is currently in the lead due to a breakout year in the 3200.  Devyn Keith leads the squad with a 9:17 converted time from the Mobile Meet of Champions.  The next three runners for Curtis have run large PR's in the past few weeks to improve to 10:00 for Trey Stewart at the Mike Conlin Relays and Zachary Barthel had a sprint to the finish race with teammate Christian Paz, posting marks of 10:13 and 10:14 at the Newman Invitational.  Back in fifth was Tyler Dugas who ran 10:45 at the Chubby Marks track meet at Tad Gormley.  In a close race for second place Episcopal and Ascension Catholic are currently battling for the runner up position.

Once again, if you know of a mark that has not been acknowledged or could affect the rankings, please let me know.  Thanks!