JOURNAL SPORTS

BATON ROUGE – Plain Dealing senior Brianna Newton defended her Class A shot put state title Thursday, and became a double gold medalist when she captured the discus crown at the LHSAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at LSU’s Bernie Moore Track Stadium.

Newton repeated as the state’s Class A shot put queen with a  38-4 ¼ mark. Then on the last throw of her career, in the discus, she threw a 105-9 mark to overtake the event leader. It held up and she collected her second state title of the day.

The Lady Lions also had a noteworthy performance in the high jump when junior Jakayla Douglas cleared a personal best of 4-9 ¾, finishing sixth.

Class 2A and 3A competition is today, with the 4A and 5A meet set Saturday.