Sep 13, 2016
Cross country is a team sport that requires individual excellence. Most meets allow 10-12 runners from each school. The team score is based on the finishing position of the first 5 runners from each school; each runners finishing place becomes their score. Finish first, get 1 point. Finish 200th, get 200 points. The team with the lowest score wins.
Saturday, at Highland Road Park, the Panther cross country team, due to injuries to promising sophomores Marshall Bayles and Coby Sanchez, only entered 5 runners in the varsity race. Each runner’s score would count in the team score. It was a challenge that these young men were happy to accept. Khidhr Al-Mustafa improved his time by 1:40 over last week as he finished in 18:16. Saulomon John improved his time by 40 seconds. Joshua Stephens continues to impress as he crossed the line in a new Personal Record time of 22:49. Brandon Williams and Darmar Galvan finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, for the Panthers.
Missing 3 weeks of practice is always hard on a team, but after two weeks of racing and putting in hard work during the week at practice, Khidhr Al-Mustafa has huge expectations and confidence in this year’s team.
When asked what he thought this squad was capable of, his answer was simple, “Top 10, Top 10, Top 10.”
Comments from Coach Wallace echoed that as he explained, “We’ve got talent, we just need to make sure we show up to practice with the right attitude each day and we will turn a lot of heads at the state meet in November”.
Another bright spot for the Panthers was the performance of senior Marshall Bayles in the open race. Bayles has looked great in practice the past two weeks and continues to improve his times and endurance in practice. Bayles, along with brother Mason Bayles and Coby Sanchez, will begin their Varsity season this Saturday at the LSU invitational.
The Lady Panthers also had a great day and were led by sisters Alexis and Aimee Martin. Older sister Alexis was the first Lady Panther to cross the line as she improved her time from last week by 45 seconds. Martin is just happy to be back in competitive racing after a long summer and trying first few weeks of the school year.
Alexis puts the early season into perspective as she says, “The season may have started rough and I may not have set any PR’s yet, but, as Coach Wallace says, ‘this car has no brakes’. So I’m going to continue to as work as hard as I can to achieve my goal of being the first Lady Panther ever to go under 20 minutes.”.
Younger sister Aimee, in her first ever varsity run, was the second Lady Panther to cross the line. The freshman has looked great in the first two weeks of the season and had a great summer of practice. Coach Wallace believes that she is a great addition to the team and should be prepared to carry her load on the varsity squad this year and for the remainder of her time at Woodlawn.
In the open race, senior Shelby Sanchez and sophomore Kelli Oubre looked very impressive as they work to race their way back into shape in preparation of rejoining the varsity squad next Saturday. Alexis Aucoin and Rayan Kaadan gave standout performances bettering last week’s times by over 2 minutes.
The boys and girls varsity squads will be back in action at the LSU Invitational on Saturday, September 17 at Highland Road Park. Girls varsity will run at 8:40 am, followed by boys, who will run at 9:15 am.
Sep 9, 2016
Woodlawn’s Robotics Team, Panthrobotics, held its fourth annual Dow Red Stick Rumble on August 27th, 2016. Twenty one teams from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi competed in this year’s FIRST® Robotics Game, Stronghold, in the Woodlawn High Gym. Approximately fifteen hundred people attended this free event and witnessed 120 pound robots vying to capture their opponent’s tower.
After forty intense matches, the second seed alliance; Team 4587, Jersey Voltage from Houston Texas, Team 4107, Team Storm from Gulfport Mississippi, and Team 4978, Tiger Robotics from Baton Rouge, Louisiana advanced through the elimination bracket to clench the victory as champions of the Rumble.
Teams also brought in supplies to be donated to people affected by the 2016 Flood. Over 100 book-sacks filled with school supplies, six 40 gallon totes of toiletries, food-stuffs, toys, and other items were donated to Woodlawn to distribute to those who were in need.
Many thanks go to the Partner Sponsor of the event, Dow Chemical, who is also a major sponsor of the team. Thanks also goes to Indiana’s AndyMark for providing food for all of the volunteers and teams on Friday evening.
Sep 9, 2016
After a good showing in the South Louisiana Invitational this weekend (2-2), the volleyball team dropped two in row this week.
On Wednesday, the Lady Panthers went five sets in a hard fought match against False River Academy. The Panthers won the first set, but lost the second. They fought back from 23-17 to win the third set 29-27. The Lady Panthers lost steam after winning a hard fought fourth set. False River finished off the match with a strong finish in the fifth.
On Thursday, the Lady Panthers squared off with Baton Rouge High. The Lady Panthers looked strong with a tremendous offensive effort by Kerri Williams who had 8 kills, four aces, along with a block, but it was not enough to overtake the strong offensive effort by the Bulldogs.
The Lady Panthers will see action this Monday at Southern Lab.
Sep 8, 2016
Missing three weeks of practice is never easy on a team. It certainly hasn’t been easy on the Panther Cross Country team, who was only able to get in one week of solid training before the first meet. But it was a great week of training and the team is off to a great start.
This past Saturday the boys and girls teams competed at the St. Michael’s Bayou Boogie cross country meet at Highland Road Park. The boys team was led over the 3-mile course by senior Khidhr Al-Mustafa in a time of 19:57, followed 20 seconds later by fellow senior Brandon Williams.
Senior Darmar Galvan (21:42) and junior Saulomon John (22:10) were followed closely by sophomore Marshall Bayles and junior Joshua Stephens. The varsity squad finished behind the host team, but ahead of district rival Plaquemine and cross town rival Broadmoor.
Alexis Martin and Melissa Grant push toward the finish line at Highland Road Park on September 3, 2016.
The girls team was led by juniors Alexis Martin and first time racer Melissa Grant. The Lady Panthers put in solid efforts and covered the first mile of the course with the leaders before sliding to the middle of the pack late in the race.
Coach Wallace commented on the performance with both teams, “The plan for today’s races was to treat it like any other workout. Let’s just get out there and get a feel for the course and the race conditions”. He went on to say that, “We have missed a lot of workouts due to things beyond our control, but with school re-starting and the team getting back into a normal workout routine, we are going to improve quickly and will be very strong 12 weeks from now at the state championship meet. This team is like a car with no brakes, we are only going faster and faster”.
The cross country team will be in action Saturday, September 10 at the Episcopal Round Table Run at Highland Road Park. The girls varsity will run at 8:30 am, followed by the boys varsity at 9:15
