Just when you thought that the incredible career resume of Jonesboro-Hodge High School track and field phenom, Ciara Gray, couldn’t get any better, along came the 2026 LHSAA Class A State Track Meet held at the Bernie Moore Track Complex on the LSU Campus in Baton Rouge on Thursday, May 7th.
After signing with LSU earlier in the week, Gray added even more unbelievable achievements at her future home when she scored 38 points to help JHHS to a third-place finish in the Class A team competition by winning three gold medals and a silver medal.
Not only did Gray win three events, but she also set a new composite (All-Classes) state meet record in the triple jump with a leap of 41′ 3″, which leaves her as the only female athlete in LHSAA history to record two jumps of over 41 feet and seven jumps of 40 feet or more. Earlier in the year, Gray set a new all-time LHSAA composite record in the triple jump by recording a mark of 41′ 9.5″ in the Lee Hedges Invitational at Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport.
Click here to view Ciara Gray’s record-setting triple jump.
Adding to her impressive feat on Thursday, Gray also set a new Class A state track meet record in winning the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 44.28 seconds. Exemplifying her ability to do her best on the biggest stage, Gray set a new personal best and broke the state record that she set in 2025.
She also won the long jump with a leap of 18′ 9.25″, claiming victory by nearly an incredible foot and a half better than the second-place finisher, another personal best in her career, and came in second place in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.36 seconds, her second-best time ever.
Adding the final chapter to her mind-boggling career, the generational talent concludes with 9 individual state championships, 3 state runner-up finishes, and 1 third-place finish, culminating in an unfathomable 120 career points across four state meets, averaging 30 points per meet. She is also a two-time back-to-back Class A Outstanding Performer Award winner (2025, 2026), LHSAA Composite (all-classes) state track meet record holder, and Composite all-time record holder in the triple jump and a Class A record holder in the 300-meter hurdles.
Lady Tigers Finish in 3rd Place at State Meet
With a total of 54 points, JHHS finished in 3rd place in the Class A girls final standings, trailing winner Southern Lab and Highland Baptist, which scored 67 and 65 points, respectively.
Other than Ciara Gray’s three first-place and one second-place finish, the Lady Tigers had two more podium placers (first, second, or third) in the 4×200 relay team of Zu’Ne’Wysha Johnson, Carmon Livingston, Derryn Osborne, and Sanaa Tatum, which finished in second place, and the third-place finishings 4×100 relay team of JaKorielle Lard, Livingston, Osborne, and Tatum. A sixth-place finish was also recorded by Livingston in the 100 meters and Tatum in the triple jump.