Track & Field/ Cross Country 

Article by Charles Salzers from the Advocate 

The Division II girls competition at the(2019) LHSAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were as close as it could be Saturday afternoon at LSU’s Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.

It was so close that St. Katharine Drexel and defending champion Academy of Sacred Heart finished tied, and shared the team title after each scored 50 points.

Those were two of three team state girls champions for the New Orleans area; Curtis won the Division I title.

Sacred Heart led St. Katharine 49-40 entering the meet’s last event, the 4x400 meter relay, and posted a time of 4:18.64 in the first of two heats. The Cardinals needed a fifth-place finish or better, or for St. Katharine to place second or worse, to win the team title neither happened.

The Jackets won their heat and picked up 10 points with an event-winning time of 4:09.24. Sacred Heart missed a fifth-place finish when St. Thomas Aquinas ran 4:18.50, leaving the Cardinals with one point for the race.

“We ran our season’s best time, but by .14 seconds we finished sixth instead of fifth,” Sacred Heart coach Greg Caro said. “But, a tie is still a state championship. I’m very happy for St. Katharine because last year they were favored, and one of their main stars blew out her hamstring in the first running event. No one wants to win that way.”

St. Katharine was languishing in sixth place for much of the day but made a move after Alia Armstrong and Kayli Johnson finished first and third in the 60-hurdles. Armstrong, who also finished second in the 60, ran a meet record time of 8.59 to win the hurdles.

Armstrong’s hurdles time was the 12th-fastest by a high schooler in the nation this season.

“(Greg Caro) is my friend,” St. Katharine coach Don McGhee said. “Our schools are less than a mile away from each other. If we’ve got to share this, then I’m glad it's him.”