Northwood's Austin Brown is one of the best track and field coaches in North Louisiana. This is not opinion. It's a fact, but the fact remained that his teams had not been able to clinch a district championship--until Thursday afternoon. Brown's Falcons won the District 1-4A championship for the first time anyone can remember--including the man who hired Brown--former Northwood head coach Jim Gatlin.
"We mapped a way to win the district championship last week," Brown said.
Brown didn't pull a rabbit out of a hat, but he did pull a Bell out of the weightroom.
"We won by 12 points and Elijah Bell scored 13 points in the high jump (6-0) and triple jump (39-8)," Brown said. He had neither done either event and had two practices.
"Jeremiah Johnson also led the way as district champion in the 200 (22.18), long jump (21-10), and 4x100m," Brown said. Johnson was also the runner-up in the 100 meters.
Seeing the Falcons score in bunches is nothing new. If you know Brown, then you know he refers to the 4x100 as "my baby." For several years, Brown has been using high tech equipment with his sprint relay teams in practice to improve performance. It has worked. The Falcons won the LHSAA State Championship in the event in 2024.
The Falcons didn't just get the job done in the sprints and jumps. Led by Kriston Johnson, who won the shot put (47-4) and discus (146-3), the Falcons scored 34 points in the throw.
Keyion Taylor played a huge role in Northwood's success. Taylor finished second in the 300 meter hurdles (43.45), third in the 110 meter hurdles (16.4), and ran a leg on Northwoods' winning 4x100 and 4x200 meter relays.
The Falcons scored 127 points, 12 points more than runner-up Loyola, who also finished as runner-up in the girls' division.
On the girls' side, the margin of victory was not as close as North DeSoto, led by Lyric Spencer's 38 points, scored 154 points and won by 30 points over the Flyers.
The boys' MVP was Bossier's Quinton Hodge, who pulled the distance triple by winning the 800 meters (2:00.40), 1600 meters (4:50.84), and the 3200 meters (10:40.01). For good measure, Hodge also a ran a leg on Bossler's fourth place 4x800 relay.
Spencer won the long jump (19-1), triple jump (39-9), 200 meters (25.33), and finished second in the 100 meters (12.30).
Spencer's mark in the long jump is the best in Louisiana in any classification this year. It also ranks No. 5 in the nation for sophomore girls, and is the No. 1 all-time mark for Louisiana sophomore girls, jumping ahead of LSU's Marley Richard, who jumped 19-4.75 as a sophomore in 2023.
