Denham Springs High's Hannah Linebaugh runs at the state meet Saturday. She won the Class 5A 1600-meter title and was second in the 3200.
Albany's Cayden Boudreaux was second in the Class 3A 1600-meter run at Saturday's state meet at LSU's Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
Denham Springs High’s Hannah Linebaugh made her first and last appearance at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships one to remember.
Linebaugh, a senior, won the Class 5A girls 1600 meters in 5:10.59 at Saturday’s Class 3A/4A/5A meet at LSU’s Bernie Moore Track Stadium, breaking a school record which was established in 1980 in the process.
As a bonus, she’s going to get to drive a Lamborghini.
Linebaugh, whose nickname is ‘Hannah Lamborghini’, said she struck a deal with her father on Friday night in an effort to calm her nerves heading into the state meet.
“He let me in on something and said that if you win the mile, we’ll go and do a test drive for a Lamborghini in New Orleans,” she said. “We’ll go on a racetrack with a Lamborghini – any color you want – if you win that mile.”
“Running through my mind, I was like, if I win, I get to go to this cool Lamborghini thing that my dad offered, and then I also get the feeling that all the work that I had throughout the season just paid off in this race,” she said. “I’m so thankful for my dad and my family and all the hard work I put into this for my senior year.”
She said she’s hoping to take her drive over the summer.
“Now, Hannah Lamborghini is literally test-driving a Lamborghini,” Linebaugh said.
She said it’s still sinking in that she’s a state champion.
“It was such a crazy feeling,” she said of winning the event. “I crossed the finish line, and I take a look at my right, and my whole family and everyone’s sitting in the bleachers screaming. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It was crazy because I looked back, and I looked back over towards the line and look up at the time, and I’m like, ‘There’s no way! This is unreal.’
“It felt so unreal too because this is the first time going to state and the first time placing first, and I was like, ‘How does this happen? Like, what?’ It was a weird feeling too, walking up on the podium and walking up on the (top step). I was like, ‘This is awesome!’”
Baton Rouge High’s Natalie Venkataraman was second in the 1600 (5:14.47) while Ruston’s Lily Garrett was third (5:16.26).
“It’s one of the best races I’ve seen run,” DSHS coach Andy McLean said of the 1600. We knew it was going to be fast.
“We told (Linebaugh) to go out, let them lead, and so Natalie went out, and Hannah stayed on her,” McLean continued. “With 300 to go, Lily had passed Hannah up, and Natalie had created kind of a gap. Hannah just dug down. She ran a really quick last lap to solidify her win. It was just perfect. It was a perfect race for what she needed to do and accomplish.”
Linebaugh said part of her success at the state meet came from her mental approach, which included visualization, heading into her events. She said she also dealt with some minor aches and pains in the week leading up to the state meet.
“That fourth lap hits, and I just take off,” she said. “I’ve always been imagining … what it would look like if I finished. How would you feel? What would you be seeing? Where would you look at? All that stuff, and I didn’t really focus on what would be going on during the race, during the first, second lap. I kept thinking about the aftermath and how I won, even though the race hasn’t started yet.”
Linebaugh also finished second in the 3200 in 11:31.18, another accomplishment she said was still sinking in.
“I was like, ‘OK, this is my first state championship meet, and I literally just walked out of that stadium first and second place. Who does that? But I did that,’” she said.
She also thanked her family, coaches and teammates for helping her get to the state meet.
Linebaugh’s effort was part of solid outing for the DSHS girls team, which finished in a four-way tie for sixth place with Dutchtown, Barbe and Alexandria with 28 points.
The DSHS girls also got a third-place finish from Makinley Harris in the javelin (125-01) for a school record, and fifth-place finishes from Kori Jones in the discus (111-11) and Kallie Calvaruso in the high jump (5-2).
“It’s a huge step for progress,” McLean said. “We talked about it today … there’s a lot of different ways you can score at the state meet. One is you’ve got to have depth to get through district and regionals and be on for those, but then you’ve got to have people who can really score points.”
Scotlandville won the girls 5A title with 86 points, while Ruston (75) was second and St. Joseph’s Academy (65.5) was third.
“We faced Scotlandville at district and then at regionals, and then we face St. Joseph’s at regionals,” McLean said. “They’ve got a lot of talent on the sprints and field side. I’ve got some kids, I think, who could have been in the top seven if they had come from another regional, and that’s just the nature of it. We had three podium finishes. That’s something to be proud of in what this team’s accomplished.”
Walker’s Cydney Cifreo was fifth in the javelin (119-03).
On the boys side, Denham Springs’ Porter Gibson was second in the shot put (52-2.75), while Justin Perault was third in the pole vault (13 feet) as the Yellow Jackets finished tied for 13th as a team with 14 points.
“While the boys only scored 14 points, those two guys who were both on the podium get to come back next year,” McLean said. “We get to kind of build some momentum off of that. I’m excited where the program’s headed. It’s a bright future for them.”
In Class 3A, the Albany girls finished tied for 13th with 12 points.
Cayden Boudreaux led the way with a second in the 1600 (5:30.44).
She finished ninth in the 800 (2:59.39) and did not compete in the 3200 after dealing with heat-related issues which caused her to begin cramping and throwing up during the meet.
“I’m hard on myself, and sometimes I forget that I’m just a sophomore … and mentally and physically I know I can’t complete eight laps around the track, and I just decided to drop out, which killed me not running it,” Boudreaux said.
“Usually, I never throw up, even basketball practice or working out, even if I have a hard work out, I never throw up,” Boudreaux continued. “It was just so unlike my body to just stop. I think it was the heat because I was out there about two hours before my first event, so I was out there for a long time. I guess my body just wasn’t prepared for that, and it just kind of gave out on me a little bit.”
“I’m just going to use this as motivation. This is not happening next year.”
The 4x800 relay team of Hoyt, Kayla Lanassa, Boudreaux and Stormy Williams was seventh (10:52.75).
Aubrey Hoyt finished fourth in the javelin (102-2).
