Franklinton’s Deante Cotton and Martavius James made it to the podium at the Class 4A State Track & Field Meet last Saturday at LSU’s Bernie Moore Stadium.

Cotton finished second in the discus while James was third during the 400-meters.

Cotton, a senior, threw the discus 152 feet, 3 inches. Westgate’s Taylor Fondal was the winner at 171-10.

Cotton was competing at the state meet for the second-straight year in the discus. Last season, he finished fifth at the state meet with a throw of 126-0.

He said last year made him work on his technique a lot over the summer.

Cotton talked about how he threw at state.

“Every meet, you try to hit a PR (personal record), but it doesn’t happen like that sometimes. You got to take what you’ve got and run with it,” Cotton said.

Cotton was also in the shot put and finished seventh, recording a 44-1. Fondal also won that event at 55-5.5.

James was competing at the state meet for the second time. Last year, he was there for the 4×200 relay, which the Demons finished in third place.

This year was the senior’s first year in the 400 and he ran it in 49.89 seconds to finish third. Huntington’s Kavarea Applewhite was first with a 49.09, followed by Franklin Parish’s C.J. Heckard’s 49.73.

“I came in confident,” James said. “I knew I was going to get on the podium. When the gun shot off, I took off and ran and tried to keep up with the crowd. At the end, I tried to go faster and it didn’t work out so good.”

James said he was in first place until about the last 40 meters.

This was James’ second-fastest time.

“I try to get better times at every meet I run and try to break PRs,” James said. “I feel like the more people are in the stands, the better I run. I get more excited.”

James, along with Azende O. Magee, Justin Hills and Dakeithan Gholar, was also part of the Demons’ 4×400 team, which finished seventh in the state. The group finished in 3 minutes, 30 seconds.

Leesville won the event in 3:23.04, followed by Edna Karr’s 3:23.53 and Crowley’s 3:23.55.

Peter Williams was fourth in the javelin with a distance of 170-9. West Ouachita’s Corbin Wiley won the title with a throw of 186-9. St. Thomas More’s Matthew Gardner was second at 185-7, followed by Cevilia’s Kenya Dartez’s 178-1.

Tavion Partman made it to state in two events, the long jump and triple jump and finished in sixth place for both.

Partman long jumped 21-7.75 and triple jumped 43-2.

Northside’s Christian Miller captured both events. He won the long jump at 23-3.25 and the triple jump with a distance of 51-0.