LAKE CHARLES, La. &045; The indoor track season is brief, and next month’s ACT testing made it even shorter for Natchez High.

That’s OK since both squads end it on an up note. The Lady Bulldogs and Bulldogs each won first place at the McNeese Indoor High School Invitational Saturday at McNeese State’s Rec Complex.

Both teams claimed the title out of 25-team fields.

&uot;This was more like a team meet,&uot; Natchez High head coach Larry Wesley said. &uot;You might have had three or four track clubs, but this was for a team concept. We went down there in our minds to win the team trophy. The upper echelon teams out of Louisiana were there. When you win a team trophy, it’s something special for your program. We finished on a good note.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs had more of a grip on first place than the boys’ team with their seven-point lead over second-place Ruston High, 54-47. The Bulldogs finished with 57 points to Barbe (La.) High’s 52.

For the girls, they had to do it again without the services of Janice Davis, who took another scheduled visit to a college despite verbally committing to Stanford last week.

The Lady Bulldogs were close in the standings heading into the mile relay, and the team of Serena Dixon, Tenieka Hill, Taji Dorsey and Lexi Washington finished second &045; ahead of Ruston &045; in a time of 4:16.92.

&uot;We had to place higher than what they were to get the points,&uot; Wesley said. &uot;If we had gotten third or fourth, we might have been looking at second place (team standings). Taji Dorsey ran an outstanding leg to get us up in the rankings.&uot;

The boys’ mile relay team had to do the same, and the team of Darius Edwards, Karlecio Richardson, Travis Washington and Kendrick Gibbons finished third to lock up first place in a time of 3:36.95.

But the highlight again was Gibbons in the hurdles. He ran another personal-best time of 7.36 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles and blew away the competition in the process.

The next-best time in the finals was 8.10 seconds.

&uot;That’s another (meet) record for him,&uot; Wesley said. &uot;The record was 7.38. You can see how far he out-distanced everybody in the race. He looked like he was ranked third in the country. It was mind-boggling, to be honest with you. It was just amazing.&uot;

Dorsey and Hill made the finals in the 55-meter and tied for third at 7.52 seconds. Whitney Thomas made the semifinals in 8.20 seconds, and she ran the 400 in 1:08.37.

In the 800, Porshe Singleton was seventh in her heat in 3:04.09 with LaColony Oliver right behind her in 3:16.29. Veressia Chatman was ninth in her heat of the 1,600-meter in 7:30.53.

Hill won the 55-meter hurdles in 8.50 seconds, while Dixon made the semifinals in 10.65 seconds. The girls’ 3,200-meter relay team of Chatman, Singleton, Thomas and Oliver was sixth in 11:30.10.

Lexi Washington tied for first in the high jump at 5-0, while she and two others were in the top seven of the long jump &045; Dorsey in second at 16-5, Washington in fourth at 15-11 1/2 and Thomas in seventh at 15-0. Singleton was fifth in her heat in the shot put at 25-6 1/2.

In boys, Richard Blanton and Travis Washington took the No. 4 and 5 spots, respectively, in the finals with Blanton in 6.72 seconds and Washington in 6.75 seconds.

Darryl Bassett was ninth in the 400 in 55.25 seconds. Times from the 800 were Chris Tenner in 2:10.7, Travis Grays in 2:21.96 and Jerald Shelvy in 2:25.14.

Times in the 1,600 were Donta Brown in 5:12.57, Grays in 5:37.29 and Byron Augustine in 5:40.23.

Gibbons was third in the high jump at 6-0, while Richardson was fifth at 5-6. Gibbons won the long jump at 23-0 1/2 with Blanton fifth at 20-0 3/4 and Bassett 10th at 18-4 1/2.

Blanton was also sixth in his heat in the shot put at 29-6 1/2.