St. Al adds three medals, PCA one at MAIS state track meet

Published 11:46 pm Saturday, May 4, 2024

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St. Aloysius runners Samantha Edwards, left, and Megan Theriot show off their medals and ribbons from the MAIS Class 5A state track meet on Saturday. Edwards finished third in the 1,600 meters, and Theriot was second in the 400 meters and third in the 200. (Micael Edwards/For The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Marley Bufkin runs in the Class 3A girls' 4x200 meter relay at the MAIS Overall state track meet on Saturday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Megan Theriot competes in the Class 5A girls' 400 meters at the MAIS Overall track and field meet Saturday in Flowood. (Micael Edwards/For The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Jae'la Smith competes in the Class 3A girls' 300 meter hurdles at the MAIS Overall state track meet on Saturday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Samantha Edwards competes in the Class 5A girls' 1,600 meters at the MAIS Overall track and field meet Saturday in Flowood. (Micael Edwards/For The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Henry Slayton, right, and the Regents School's James Edwards compete in the Class 3A boys' 300 meter hurdles at the MAIS Overall state track meet on Saturday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Annslee Averett competes in the Class 5A girls' hurdles at the MAIS Overall track and field meet Saturday in Flowood. (Micael Edwards/For The Vicksburg Post)

FLOWOOD — St. Aloysius and Porter’s Chapel Academy did not win any more championships at the MAIS Overall track and field meet, but they did add to their medal count,

St. Aloysius’ girls’ team won three medals in the Class 5A meet — one silver and two bronze — and Henry Slayton scored a silver for PCA’s boys’ team in the Class 3A meet during Saturday’s running events at Jackson Prep.

Megan Theriot won two of St. Al’s three medals. She finished second in the 400 meters and third in the 200, and just missed another podium finish in the 100.

Theriot placed fourth in the 100 meters, .07 seconds behind Heritage Academy’s Sophie Starks for third place. Starks had a time of 13.05 seconds and Theriot finished in 13.12. Bayou Academy’s Rihanna Love won in 12.45 seconds.

Theriot had time of 1 minute, 1.77 seconds in the 400 meters and 26.90 seconds in the 200.

Theriot was also on the 4×200 and 4×100 meter relays that finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Annslee Averett, Kelci Bingham and Madelyn Kavanaugh were the other relay team members.

Averett competed in the 100 meter hurdles as well, and finished sixth.

Samantha Edwards found her way onto the podium with a third-place finish in the 1,600 meters, with a time of 5:35.78. That helped ease some of the sting from fourth-place finishes in the 800 and 3,200 meters.

Despite only having four individual athletes and the two relays in the meet, St. Al totaled 45 points and finished sixth in the Class 5A girls team standings. Bayou Academy won the team title with 167.5 points and Silliman was second with 86.5.

St. Al did not have any male athletes qualify for the state meet.

For Porter’s Chapel, Slayton brought home a silver medal for his second-place finish in the boys’ 800 meters.

Slayton had a time of 2:10.52, about a second ahead of the Regents School’s Samuel Bryan but well behind winner Samuel Lewis of Christ Covenant. Lewis clocked a time of 2:03.65.

Slayton was also eighth in the 300 meter hurdles and on all three of the Eagles’ relay teams, but none of them placed. The 4×100 and 4×200 teams of Slayton, Taylor Labarre, Lakelan Pecanty and Jase Jung finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

The 4×400 team of Slayton, Labarre, Jung and Nick Neihaus finished fourth in 3:52.63, about 4 1/2 seconds off of the podium. Sylva-Bay finished third in 3:48.03 and Christ Covenant won in 3:46.43.

PCA’s girls’ team got a state championship from Jae’la Smith in the high jump during Friday’s field events, but was unable to land another podium finish on Saturday. Smith came the closest, with a fourth-place finish in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 51.33 seconds.

Marley Bufkin was in two individual events — the 100 and 200 meters — but finish sixth and fifth, respectively.

PCA’s three relay teams couldn’t crack the top three, either. Smith, Bufkin, Mia Abdo and Ansley Conway placed fourth in the 4×200 with a time of 1:56.17.

The 4×100 team of Bufkin, Conway, Smith and Audrey Carraway placed fifth, while the 4×400 relay of Bufkin, Carraway, Abdo and Smith finished sixth.

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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