BOISE — Jerry Louie-McGee reached the finish line in the 400 meters feeling extremely satisfied with his effort and performance.

Meridian’s Bryson Stout had reached the line just before the Lake City High junior and Louie-McGee knew there was no shame being second best in the state behind the talented Stout. He went off to stretch on the infield at Dona Larsen Park and a short time later he learned the medal he was about to receive wouldn’t be for second place after all.

Stout was disqualified for a lane violation. That meant Louie-McGee, who ran a time of 48.64 seconds, was elevated to 5A champion while being one of the standouts of Saturday’s final day of the state 5A and 4A track meets.

“I feel blessed. I’ll take it,” Louie-McGee said with a beaming smile. “It is awesome. I’ve been working for this since my freshman year. This is a great feeling.”

Louie-McGee also was part of two winning Lake City relay teams — the 4x200 and 4x400 — and placed fourth in the 200 in 22.27 seconds while turning in the top overall performance of his high school career. He helped the Timberwolves finish with 83.5 points, second in the 5A boys team competition behind Rocky Mountain.

Also excelling at the state meet was Lake City junior Maddison Ward, who won the 5A girls 100 meters and repeated as the 200 champion. Coeur d’Alene junior Kaitlyn Gunnerson took first place in the 5A 100 hurdles and Sandpoint freshman Rainey Woodward won the state crown in the 4A girls 800.

Louie-McGee’s time was nearly 1.5 seconds superior to his previous best and coach Kelly Reed was impressed with his performance.

“Jerry was right on his heels anyway so it’s not like it was by default or whatever,” Reed said in reference to the disqualification. “Jerry was absolutely phenomenal.”

Louie-McGee’s first victory of the day came when he ran the first leg of the 4x200 relay, teaming with seniors Nathan Newby, Rikki McCaw and Chris Baker to win the event in 1 minute, 28.27 seconds.

“As soon as the gun went off, we knew in our heads that we wanted it more than anybody else wanted it,” Newby said.

Newby ran the second leg and Louie-McGee was the anchor when the 4x400 team closed the meet with a winning time of 3:21.87. Junior Jake Finney ran the first leg and Tanner Horton served as the third runner due to an injury to McCaw.

“It’s the best feeling ever to win a state championship,” Horton said.

Ward pulled off her double-double with a couple of typical stellar performances. She won the 100 in 12.21 seconds and came back later in the hot afternoon to defend her 200 title with a time of 24.82.

“It’s exciting. I just want to go for a three-peat,” Ward said. “Hopefully I can pull this off again next year. I just got to stay healthy — and fast.”

Speed has never been a problem for Ward but she got off to a relatively slow start after breaking her left leg during soccer season.

She was cleared to participate in track activities about two weeks before the start of the season and Reed raves about her ability to handle pressure as well as navigate her way on the track.

“Maddi is an absolutely freak of nature athletically,” Reed said. “She started the season a little slow due to injury in the offseason and just every week, she just got faster and faster and faster. She’s experienced enough that this stage isn’t too big for her. She stepped up when she had to and she ran beautifully.”

The Lake City girls finished sixth in the 5A girls team scoring with 47 points, just behind fifth-place Coeur d’Alene (56).

Gunnerson nearly pulled her off own double, winning the 100 hurdles in 14.63 seconds and narrowly falling in the 300 hurdles. Centennial’s Tatyana Jones (44.70) was declared the winner over Gunnerson (44.72) and Vikings coach Linda Lanker wasn’t convinced the decision was accurate.

“Literally, I went up and looked at the camera and it was a dead time,” Lanker said. “I don’t even know how they were to able to decipher who really won.”

There were no such issues in Gunnerson’s 100 hurdles race as she finished strong to hold off the challenge of Capital’s Aadryan Hammond (14.70).

“I lost my trail and she started catching up,” Gunnerson said of Hammond closing in about two-thirds through the race. “I just had to give everything I had to make up for it.”

Coeur d’Alene junior Victoria Goetz was unable to score a state title but she did set a school record in the 400 for the second consecutive day. Goetz finished in 56.41 seconds behind Madison Lung (56.07) of Boise.

Sandpoint’s Woodward showed experience beyond her age by claiming the 4A girls 800 title as a ninth-grader.

Woodward finished with a time of 2:19.37, more than 3 1/2 seconds ahead of Preston senior Caitlin Elgan and said she never doubted she could win the event in her first visit to the state meet.

“I knew I was ahead of the group and I knew I would have to push myself to be up there,” Woodward said. “But yeah, I thought it was possible.”

“Rainey took the lead in the first 150 meters and ran the race wire to wire to win it,” Sandpoint distance coach Matt Brass said. “She unleashed a devastating kick and broke her school record by two seconds.”

Lakeland senior Shane Leonard was involved in three top-four finishes on the 4A boys side. Leonard placed second (22.72) in the 200, fourth (11.25) in the 100 and ran the first leg of the school’s second-place 4x200 finish. Junior Auston Henry, freshman David Moruzzi and junior Jeremy Frisk were the other runners of the foursome that finished in 1:31.47.

“It was decent,” Leonard said of the relay team’s runner-up finish. “I stumbled a bit out of the blocks and David ran really well and made up ground.”

Other 4A boys to medal include the following athletes from Sandpoint: Senior Sam Levora (second, 1600, 4:16.51), senior Nathan Schwartz (fourth, 110 hurdles, 15.73), senior Matthew Burgstahler (fifth, 800, 1:57.76), senior Grant Kennaly (tied for sixth, pole vault, 13-0) and sophomore Kyle Perry (sixth, 100, 11.29).

Levora, who has signed with Washington State, was second in the 3,200 on Friday as well.

“Sam and Elijah went through the 800 in 2:05, before Elijah (Armstrong, of Pocatello)went on to set the overall state record with a 4:09,” said Brass, noting Levora lowered his own school record. “He has had a brilliant career at Sandpoint, and finished it off with another fantastic performance.”

Sandpoint junior Mikhaela Woodward finished second in the 4A girls 1,600 with a time of 5:15.41. Sandpoint senior Lily DeAragon finished fourth in the 400 in 59.8 seconds while the school’s 4x400 relay team finished fourth in 4:10.19.

Among 5A girls, Lake City senior Kasey Widmyer finished second in the triple jump (36 feet, seven inches) and Lake City junior Clarissa Smith was sixth in the discus (115-8). Lake City sophomore Camryn Wendlandt was fifth (5-0) in the high jump and joined Ward as being part of two relay teams that medaled — the 4x100 (third, 49.45) and 4x200 (third, 1:43.21). Junior Alissa Jolliff and freshman Havana Johnson were the other two members of those relay teams.

Coeur d’Alene finished fourth in the 4x400 relay as Goetz, sophomore Emily Callahan, Gunnerson and senior Brittany Tackett finished in 3:57.64. The quartet of Tackett, senior Sara Chalich, Gunnerson and Goetz finished fourth in the 4x100 (50.0) and fifth in the 4x200 (1:44.20).

Among 5A boys, Coeur d’Alene senior Addison Johnson placed third in the 100 (10.97) and was part of the 4x100 team — along with Simeon Desautel, Anthony Dahlheimer and Gunnar Amos — that finished third in 43.17 seconds. Post Falls senior Matthew Bauman (second, 160-7) and Lake City junior Quinn Mitchell (third, 160-3) both earned medals in the 5A discus.

Other 5A boys to place include Lake City’s Baker in the 200 (third, 22.15) and the 100 (sixth, 11.11), Lake City’s Finney (fifth, 800, 1:56.73) and Lake City junior Jeramy Hughes (high jump, tied for sixth, 6-0).