BOYS' 60M HURDLES
Here we have one of the most competitive 60m hurdle finals in Louisiana indoor history between Justin Horne, Broderick Davis, and Cody Smith. These three are some of the best indoor hurdlers of all time for Louisiana and they exemplified that this past weekend. Justin Horne dominated the field with his final heat time of 7.93 with Davis and Smith also delivering some of the fastest times in Louisiana history. As of right now, Horne is ranked at US #10 and holds the fastest mark of all-time for Louisiana in this event.
GIRLS' 1600M
This 1600m heat was surprising considering how rare it is to see this many girls dip down under 5:20 in one race. We saw several of the top times in the state, as well as a big kick from Natalie Venkataraman. Venkataraman is now the second-fastest performer in the state with her final time of 5:15.79. This makes 2022 the deepest the mile field has been since 2018.
BOYS' AND GIRLS'4x800M RELAY
This race was one of the fastest 4x800m relays ever run by some of these local schools. The two 5A distance powerhouses duked it out with Ruston taking an early lead and Jesuit attempting to close the gap throughout the race. In the end, the Bearcats won with a state lead, field house record, school indoor record, and a national ranking of US #12. Jesuit also surpassed the old state lead of 8:09 from Catholic High with their time of 8:07. The Blue Jays are currently ranked at US #22 with Catholic following at US #27.
The girls' race was just as impressive with Ruston breaking the 10-minute barrier. Much like the boys' race, this was one of the fastest relays the state has ever seen. On top of that, this is the first time since 2017 that a girl's 4x800m squad has broken 10 minutes. The last team to pull that off was Lafayette with their New Balance Indoor Nationals qualifying team. Ruston now stands as the 4th fastest Louisiana squad of all time for this event with St. Joseph's Academy and Scotlandville trailing not far behind with an all-time ranking of 8th and 12th, respectively.
GIRLS' 4x200M RELAY
BOYS' 400M
Marquez Stevenson left behind the rest of the competition in the 400m and gave everyone something to look at by gifting us the first sub-50 400m of the year. He ran away with the win ever since the gun was fired and crossed the line with a time of 49.17. This time ranks him nationally at US #29 and #15 on the Louisiana all-time list for indoor.
Of course, we can't cover every impressive race from this past weekend, so feel free to check out the rest of our archived videos and photos from the LSU Last Chance Qualifier.