A TEAM PICTURE AT THE PODIUM AFTER ANOTHER STATE CHAMPIONSHIP IS A FAMILIAR SIGHT FOR CATHOLIC
LHSAA DIVISION I BOYS LEADERS
The 2026 LHSAA State Indoor Championships will take place a week from today. While there are some questions in team races and individual events, the Catholic Bears winning their third-straight track and field championship is a close to a sure thing as you are going to find.
Catholic started this current state championship run after winning last year's state indoor meet. They made it a sweep in 2025 by claiming the LHSAA State Outdoor Championship last May.
But that was then and this is now. Let's break down the Bears.
When you are talking about the boys in the orange singlets, two things immediately come to mind--a deep distance group littered with talented young runners and solid relay teams--especially in the 4x400m.
Catholic is the only team in the state to have two distance runners in the top ten rankings in the mile and two mile. In the 1600m, William Decuir (4:22) is ranked No. 4 in Louisiana and sophomore Augustin Juneau (4:28) is ranked No.10.
In the 3200m, Juneau is ranked No. 4 with a 9:25 and Peter Watson is ranked No. 5 with a 9:32.
Decuir (1:56.14) is right behind Mandeville's state leader in the 800m--Brayden Berglund (1:55.96)
Last year at the state indoor meet, Catholic had a runner on the podium of every distance event. Decuir (1:58) was second in the 800m. Watson (4:28) slipped in front of Parkway's Ben Ruliffson at the end of the 1600m. And the then--freshman Juneau (9:32) ran a gutsy race to finish third in the 3200m.
Although Jesuit had two state champions in the distance events--Brady Monahan (9:31) in the 1600m and Connor Fanberg (4:22.53) in the 1600m--Catholic was the only team to be represented in all three events.
But the price of gold in 2026 has gone through the roof with the return of Parkway's Brennan Robin, who leads the state in both the 1600m (4:14.42) and 3200m (9:12.25). Robin missed the entire indoor season in 2025 after spraining his ankle during a pre-season training run.
Before moving on from the distance group, we have to mention Catholic senior Jonathan Thompson. Thompson (4:30) finished fifth in the 1600m a year ago. Whether he shows up in an open race or not, you can expect Thompson to be leading the Bears---even if it's a leg on the Bear's state-leading 4x800m relay.
Last year's title race was tighter than Catholic head coach Sean Brady would have liked. This year, Brady's blood pressure should not be as high thanks to his 400m sprinters-- Henry Mensman, who leads Louisiana with a time of 48.98, and his teammate Harrison Lalande, who is ranked No. 2 in Division I with a time of 49.63.
Amari Clayton (50.74) scored eight points for Catholic with his runner-up finish in 2025. With the potential of having two sprinters on the 400m podium it gives the Bears some wiggle room.
In the short sprints, Catholic has an outside shot to score points. Senior Jude Schlegel moved into the No. 7 spot in school history in the 60m hurdles earlier this year. He would love nothing more to score points for his team at the state indoor meet. Schlegel is currently ranked No. 9 in the 60m hurdles with a season best of 8:45.
The future is bright for the Bears in the hurdles. When Schlegel graduates in May, look for us to be writing about John Van Gaudiano and William Rudge this time next year. All three Bear hurdlers made the finals of the 55m hurdles at the McNeese Indoor No. 2 with Schlegel (7.93) and Gaudiano (8.09) finishing No. 2 and No. 3 respectively.
Schlegel finished No. 8 at the 2025 LHSAA State Indoor Meet with a time of 8.66.
In the field events, Catholic looks to get some valuable points from senior Jack Torrance in the shot put and junior John Henry Overton in the pole vault.
Overton finished No. 13 at last year's state indoor meet. Going in this year, he ranks No. 1 in Division I with a season best of 15-5 from last week's LSU Last Chance Qualifier. Nationally, Overton ranks No. 17 in the Class of 2027.
Torrance finished third in the shot put at last year's state indoor meet, and he is ranked No. 3 in Division I going into this year's meet.
Torrance is coming into his final meet of the indoor season with momentum from a personal record effort of 56-4.75 at last Saturday's LSU Last Chance Qualifier. It was the second year in a row that Torrance set a personal record at the Last Chance Qualifier.
Catholic sophomore Brady Biossat could mess around and score some points for the Bears in the high jump. Biossat is ranked No. 8 in Division I with a season best of 6-0. Even if he is not able to get in the mix for point production this year, be sure to remember the name. He is the No. 1 ranked sophomore in Louisiana.
Last, but not least, is the relays. Catholic is ranked No. 1 in Division I in every relay. The Bears are the only Division I team in Louisiana to break 1:30 in the 4x200. Catholic's season best is 1:29.46. They also lead in the 4x400m (3:28) and 4x800m (8:12).
Coach Brady has been around the sport long enough to know that rankings don't mean anything going into the state meet. It's how the team performs on the day of the meet. Anything can happen--like last year when the Bears had a sprinter pull up with an injury during the 4x200m.