Lady Patriots, Wildcats win Wildcat Relays

The North Vermilion Lady Patriots and the Abbeville Wildcats took home first-place trophies in the Rene Trahan Wildcat Relays Friday night.
North Vermilion edged LadyCat Relay champion Erath to claim the win.
“We had some girls place and run times that they didn’t think they could run, so now their confidence is boosted,” said Lady Patriot head coach Mya Touchet. “That’s definitely going to carry them through, especially running against other teams from the parish and the district. They know now that they can compete with them, so they can believe in themselves and I think that’s going to help them out a lot this season.”
North Vermilion placed in the top-3 in nine events with two first-place finishes.
Senior Lunden Graham won the 800-meter run with a personal record of 2:27. Simone Pillette was victorious in the shot put with a distance of 35-7.5.
Gueydan’s Ke’ara Charles won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.96 seconds.
Abbeville’s Arrayia Starland garnered first-place honors in the 400. Starland’s teammate Nadasha Valliere won the discus by 14 feet over Catholic High’s Keona James.
Kaplan High won both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays.
Erath’s Lindsey Darby edged Abbeville’s Eliza Chambers for first in the triple jump.
On the boys’ side, the Abbeville Wildcats won the meet by more than 30 points over second-place Erath.
The Wildcats posted seven first-place finishes en route to the victory after finishing third in the Snooks Relays Tuesday.
“We had a better and more consistent effort out of the kids,” said Abbeville coach Ozzie Blaize. “We had a lot of kids Tuesday who were in their first track meet ever; that nervousness kind of went away today. We’re just getting better; we have a lot of young kids who are getting better.”
Abbeville’s Mathew Johnson won the 100-meter dash and Jakennet Batiste triumphed in the 200.
The Wildcats won the 4x100 and 4x200 relays before finishing in second to Kaplan in the 4x400.
Kaplan’s Jalen Bates and North Vermilion’s Dade Dieterich were awarded as the outstanding field performers. Bates won the shot put and finished second in the discus, and Dieterich won the triple jump and placed second in the long jump.
The Wildcats went from third-to-first in a matter of three days, and Blaize said winning has its benefits.
“It makes running in practice a whole lot easier,” he said with a smile. “It’s like getting a paycheck at the end of the week. We tell them hard work pays off, well it just paid off.”