CIARA GRAY POSES WITH HER HARDWARE AFTER THE LHSAA CLASS 1A STATE OUTDOOR MEET
There were several athletes to leave LSU's Bernie Moore Stadium with gold medals after Day One of the LHSAA State Outdoor Track & Field Championships. A handful left with with multiple gold medals, but nobody left with four individual gold medals...except for Jonesboro Hodge junior Ciara Gray.
Gray won the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.92. She returned later during the running events to win with a time of 44.32. Both hurdle races were dominant wins.
She was just as dominant in the horizontal jumps where she won the long jump with a leap of 39-6, almost four feet better than Block eighth grader Janiyah Alexander (35-7.5).
The long jump competition was the most competitive of Gray's (18-1.5) events. She defeated Alexander (18-0.25) by just over an inch.
Gray's 40 points led Jonesboro Hodge (58 points) to the LHSAA Class 1A championship. The Tigers scored 13 points more than runner-up Southern Lab (45 points).
In the Class 1A boys' division, Southern Lab came out on top by scoring 55 points--seven more than runner-up Highland Baptist.
The Kittens were led by sophomore Warren Gougisha, who won the high jump with a mark of 6-8. That mark ties him for No. 5 all-time among Louisiana sophomores in the event. Gougisha also finished fourth in the triple jump (43-8), sixth in the 300m hurdles (42.47), and ran a leg on Souther Lab's third place 4x400m relay, which ran a season best 3:32.70.
Highland Baptist was a in a position to win the state title thanks to the performance of junior Tyler Blissett, who won the distance triple with wins in the 800m (1:59.70), 1600m (4:27.92), and 3200m (9:48.40). In the field events, the Bears picked up 20 points from junior Justin Suire, who won the shot put (47-0.25)and discus (153-7).
Blissett is familiar with making the trip to the podium at the Bernie Moore Stadium after his races. His distance triple gold is the second year in a row he has accomplished the feat. During his freshman year in 2023 he won both the 1600m and 3200m, but just missed the triple with a runner-up performance in the 800m.