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CLINTON, La. — Last Wednesday and Saturday turned out to be stellar days for several members of Cathedral High School’s varsity boys’ and girls’ track and field teams at the 2025 MAIS Class 5A South State Track Meet held at Silliman Institute.

“Both boys and girls finished in the middle. We finished in fourth place out of nine teams,” Cathedral head track coach Tommy Smith said. “They did great. We put 15 kids out of 34 that are on the roster at State. We feel pretty good about it.”

In the field events held last Wednesday, the starting team was moved two hours earlier to beat the rain. And yet two members of Cathedral’s boys’ team had first-place finishes. Brock Burgess won the shot put with a throw of 44 feet, 3 inches to go with his second-place finish in the discus while Thomas McKnight won the both the one-mile run and the two-mile run.

“He finished two and a half feet in front of second place,” Smith said about Burgess win in the shot put. “That’s a big ole boy.”

McKnight set a new personal record in the one-mile run with a time of 4 minutes and 52 seconds. Also for the boys’ team, Chase Gamberi came in fourth place in the long jump.

On the varsity girls’ side, Payden Brown came in third place in the shot put and Allie Grace McGehee was third in the two-mile run.

They all qualified for the field events at the MAIS Class 5A State Meet, which will be held on Friday, May 2 at Jackson Academy in Jackson starting at 9 a.m.

The running events still went on as scheduled on Saturday despite the inclement weather that his southeast Louisiana last Friday afternoon and evening. Even so, Cathedral did quite well in several events.

Gamberi came in fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles and in fourth place in the open 400-meter run with a time of 54.82 seconds. A’Niyah Lane led the varsity girls’ team with second-place finishes in the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, the latter of which she set a new personal record of 26.71 seconds. Lane joined teammates Addie House, Laura Verucchi, and Lizzie Verucchi for the girls’ 4×400 relay team in which it came in third place. Lane was also on the girls’ 4×100 relay team with Reece Jones, Adeline Burgett, and Kinsley Gaines that ended up in fourth place.

The girls’ 4×800 relay team of House, Burgett, and Laura and Lizzie Verucchi finished in third place. The boys’ 4×800 relay team of McKnight, Barrett Foster, Jackson Shirley, and Matthew Verucchi wound up in third place.

When asked if any member of the boys’ and girls’ teams stood out to him, Smith said, “I think they all did as good as they could. They’re all standouts for making it to State.”

Those who finished in the top four in each event qualified for the running events at the Class 5A State Meet, which will be held on Saturday, May 3 at Jackson Preparatory School in Flowood starting at 9:30 a.m.