BATON ROUGE — Morgan City sprinter Austin Stroud’s fifth-place finish in the 100-meter dash and sixth-place finish in the 200 meter run highlighted the Tigers’ participation at the Class 4A state track and field meet on Saturday.

Stroud recorded a 10.7-second mark in the 100 meters after recovering from a bad start.

“Austin should have won the 100,” MCHS coach Gary Johnson said. “That start is what got him, I think. He just didn’t have enough intensity coming out of the blocks. (He) came on like a beast (later) in the race. I thought he got second, honestly. I don’t think he got fifth place.”

Northside’s Jordan Lee won the event in 10.53.

In the 200-meter dash, Stroud ran a personal best of 21.75. Johnson and Stroud were shooting for a 21.9 or better in the 200

“That’s all I can ask from him as far as that 200,” Johnson said. “He put it all out there like I asked him to.”

Travin Dural of Breaux Bridge, an LSU football commitment, won the 200-meter title in 21.16

In the 4x200, Morgan City’s team of Marquise Hatcher, Jordahn Williams, Tierell Jones and Stroud finished sixth with a time of 1:29.17.

Johnson said the squad was plagued by a bobbled exchange, something Johnson said hasn’t happened to the squad before.

“If you bobble in the least bit in the exchange zone, that’s the difference in (between) first and fifth place,” he said.

The squad entered the event as the second seed with a time of 1:27.73.

Breaux Bridge, who entered as the top seed, won the event with a mark of 1:26.76.

Morgan City originally placed seventh in the event, but Salmen was disqualified for a zone violation on its second baton exchange.

“They did what I asked them to do,” Johnson said of the Tigers’ 4x200 meter relay. “They made some mistakes, (and) it just didn’t happen.”

Despite not medaling in any events, Johnson said he is optimistic for the future because of the solid group of freshmen and sophomores he has to fill roles of departing seniors, Stroud and Williams.