Replay: Jesuit, Mount Carmel repeat as 9-5A track champions

NEW ORLEANS – Depth in the distance and field events helped propel Jesuit and Mount Carmel to repeats as District 9-5A track and field champions Thursday night at Tad Gormley Stadium.

The event was broadcast live by Crescent City Sports for the second straight year.

The Blue Jays finished with 151 points, well ahead of second-place John Curtis Christian with 117 and third-place Brother Martin with 91. Edna Karr (76), Holy Cross (56), Archbishop Rummel (49) and St. Augustine (45) rounded out the boys order of finish.

The Cubs won the girls title for the fourth consecutive year, finishing with a 125-107 edge over second-place Dominican. Karr was third with 77 points, followed by Curtis (60) and Archbishop Chapelle (22).

Jesuit scored 69 points in field events, 42 in the distance events and 26 in the four relays.

Mount Carmel totaled 45 points in the field, 36 in distance and 22 in the relays.

With the team title just about in hand, Jesuit junior Brady Mullen broke the 42-year-old district meet record in the 3,200-meter run, the penultimate event of the night. His time of 9:15.48 was nearly 13 seconds better than former Archbishop Rummel standout Keith Iovine in 1982.

The Jays’ 4×800-meter relay team took down its record from last year’s district meet, winning in 8:10.30.

Jesuit also got a 1-2 finish in the long jump from Jody Barber and Drago Cvitanovich.

The other long-standing boys record to fall was in the boys 100, when Curtis’ Michael Turner stopped the timer in 10.37 seconds, .04 better than former Archbishop Shaw two-sport standout Carlos Jones ran in 1992.

Seeking the sprint double, Turner appeared to injure his hamstring coming out of the turn in the 200 meters and did not finish.

Curtis had two big performances in the field, with Zach Drake winning the javelin with a throw of 196 feet, 8 inches, and Kyron Sumler doubling in the high jump and triple jump. The Patriots fell less than a half-second short of the district record in the meet-ending 4×400, winning in 3:20.34 with 400-meter champ King Taylor running the anchor leg.

Rummel’s Caleb Curry scored titles in the two hurdle events.

While Jesuit and Brother Martin runners grabbed almost all of the regional qualifying spots in the distance events, St. Augustine’s Kyzer Dunbar pulled a bit of a surprise by winning the 800 meters in 1:54.36, less than two-tenths of a second off the district meet record and more than five seconds faster than his season-best time.

Mount Carmel got a distance sweep from Stella Junius in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters, and the Cubs opened the closed the running events with victories in the 4×800 and 4×400 relays.

Sophie Junius won the javelin for the Cubs, while Alexandra Oliveri captured the long jump and Grace Wallace the pole vault.

Dominican took the 4×100 relay and got a victory from Olivia Bordes in the 400 meters.

Curtis’ Keva Thomas doubled in the shot put and discus, while Patriots sophomore Addilyn Dufrene went a career-best 5-10 to win the high jump and then won the 100-meter hurdles in a season-best 15.75.