Barras comes through under pressure to win 3 events

Heading into her final high school athletic events, Highland Baptist senior Marin Barras was the top seed in three events at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Class A Outdoor Track & Field Meet Thursday at LSU.

And with it came a lot of pressure.

“I have to admit, there was a lot of pressure being the top seed in all three events,” Barras said. “I knew that I could handle the discus, because I won a state championship in the event two years ago.

“But I had never been to the state meet in shot put and I started throwing the javelin in March.”

Barras had already won one state title this year, winning the shot put at the state indoor meet in February, but there was still the question whether she could pull off the triple at the state outdoor meet.

First up was the shot put and Barras easily won with a heave of 43 feet, 7 1/2 inches.

“I had my first attempt and it was 39 and some change,” Barras said. “It was my second throw that I hit 43 feet and I knew when I did that I was going to win.”

Her closest competitor threw 37-7 3/4; Barras had won her first outdoor title of the year and now had won both the indoor and outdoor shot put titles.

Next up was the javelin.

“That was tough,” Barras said. “I knew that I was the top seed but the second and third seed were girls that I beat in the regional. But this is the state meet and they had a lot more experience throwing the javelin than I did.

“For the most part, I was using all arm to throw the javelin. Later on, I learned a little technique but I wasn’t doing a lot of technique because I had only been throwing since March.”

In the end, not having a lot of technique didn’t matter. Barras won with a toss of 133 feet even.

Second place was 127-9 from one of the girls she beat in the regional. The HBCS senior and UL track signee was now 2-for-2 at the state meet.

The last of the events was discus, where Barras was the defending state champion from two years ago since there was no state track meet in 2020 due to the cancellation of school and sporting events in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main problem was that she had done two events in roughly two hours in the hot sun. Now Barras had to wait about two more hours for the discus competition.

“I just lied down and rested,” she said. “I wasn’t concerned about cooling off too much or my arm getting tired because of all the throwing I had done so far.”

It showed when the discus started as Barras quickly took the lead and won with a throw of 131-2. He closest competitor threw 96-9.

Not only had Barras gone 3-for-3, she had set a new state record in Class A in the discus, beating the old record of 122-6 set in 1998. Now the only question was if she would go for the composite record of 160-6 set in 1988.

“I tried,” Barras said. “I really wanted to but I messed up on my last throw when I was going for it.”

So she didn’t set a new composite record but with a new Class A record and with three state titles, Barras was named Outstanding Field Woman at the meet and shared overall MVP honors.

“That was really great,” she said.

“To be able to do that on a state level was awesome.”

Now Barras will take her talents to the college level at the University of Louisiana but just exactly what she’ll throw in college is up in the air.

“The UL coaches have asked me a lot of questions about throwing and what I like to do and what I think I can do,” Barras said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do just yet but I can’t wait to get started doing it.”