Blythewood wins AAAAA girls track state title for second straight year

Columbia – Aleshia Hawkins said her Blythewood High School girls track and field team is like a revolving door. Now that’s the case with any high school athletic team because of a thing called graduation. What the Blythewood head coach is saying is the Bengals lose good athletes but are able to replace them with another group of good athletes.

That was on display in the AAAAA state meet on Friday at Spring Valley High’s Harry Parone Stadium. BHS won its second consecutive state title, finishing with 86 points to easily outdistance second place Summerville’s 50.50 points,

“This team is special because a lot of these girls are young kids,” said Hawkins. “A lot of the girls did not make it to the region championship last year, and they are actually here on the podium today. We’re just a very young team. We only have five seniors.”

One of the youngsters leading the way for Blythewood on Friday was freshman Peyton Hightower. She won the 400-meter dash in a time of 55.15 seconds. She also ran the anchor leg on the winning 4x400-meter relay team Hightower teamed with seventh-grader Alexandra Francique, fellow freshman Madison Ross and one of the five seniors, Patience Lisbon, to win in a time of 3 minutes, 53.34 seconds.

“It means everything,” Hightower said of winning the title again. “To win a state championship is super hard as a team, and to do it back-to-back is really difficult. For our team to all come together, everyone played a big part, everyone scored points and everyone just came together. I’m super proud of this team. I knew we could do it. I’m glad we came out on top.”

The other event winner for the Bengals was junior Aminah Rhone in the 100-meter hurdles. She finished in a time of 14.57.

Each of the five seniors scored points on Friday. Along with running her leg on the 4x4 team, Lisbon finished fourth in the 400 hurdles and sixth in the 100 hurdles. Dara Bolt finished second in the triple jump, Zion Harvey was sixth in the 200 dash, and Aniya Fluker was eighth in the shot put.

Harvey also ran a leg on the 4x100 team that finished fourth. She was joined by Ross, Rhone and junior Brittany Benson. The other senior, Eva Pendleton, ran a leg on the 4x800 team, which finished third. She was joined by junior Jurnee Warren, sophomore Anna Kelly and junior Mallorie Hogue.

Sophomore Olivia Taylor had a good day for Blythewood, finishing second to Hightower in the 400, third in the 100 dash and eighth in the long jump. Kelly finished fifth in the 3,200 run and sophomore Hayley Hightower was sixth in the 800 run.

“Every year we get new people,” Peyton Hightower said. “We feel like we can take this program really far. We have already built a legacy and we’re hoping to continue.”

Summerville was led by sophomore Trinity Jones, who won two individual events and ran a leg on a winning relay team. Jones won the 100 in 11.72 and the 200 in 24.42. She was on the Green Wave 4x1 team that won in 47.07 along with eighth-grader Camryn Dillings, freshman A’zedah Anderson and senior Cheyenne Williams.

Jones said she brought a different thought process to the meet this year as opposed to her freshman year.

“I ran a little slow last year because I was in my head,” Jones said. “The difference was my mindset, not being afraid of the times, just going out there and running how I run and not (worrying about) how other people run.”

The other big story of the day from an individual aspect was Nation Ford senior Mia Royall. She set a state record in winning the 1,600 run with a time of 4:48.09 and won the 800 in 2:15.46.

“A year ago, I never thought I was going to get that time in my high school career,” Royall said of record-breaking time. “I’ve had a lot of growth n my high school career. It’s insane that I’ve got to this point. It’s so amazing.”

Chapin senior Abigail White finished second to Royall in the 1,600 in 4:48.74, also besting the old record. White would go on to win the 3,200 in 11:04.20.

 “The competition really stepped up this year,” said Royall, who will be running track and cross country for the United States Military Academy beginning in the fall. “There are a lot of great runners right now. I’m so glad I had the competition I did this year. Without it, I don’t think I would have got these times.”

Other individual winners were Goose Creek senior Faith Jones in the 400 hurdles in 1:02.29, West Ashley senior Madelynn Cohen in the pole vault with a vault of 11 feet, 3 inches, Carolina Forest sophomore Miracle Nelson in the high jump with a jump of 05-03, Dutch Fork senior Maliya Kinard in the long jump with a jump of 19-05, Spartanburg freshman Riley Vaughn in the discus with a throw of 136-02, Ashley Ridge junior Alana Braxton in the triple jump with a jump of 40-10.25, sophomore Abrianna Parks of Byrnes in the shot put at 37-09.25, and Ashley Ridge senior Samantha Franklin in the javelin with a throw of 147-04.

The Mauldin 4x8 relay team of junior Meredith Norris, senior Reagan Cooke, junior Callie Rohm and freshman Avery Griffith won in 9:21.40.

Mauldin finished third with 46 points followed by Nation Ford with 43, Spartanburg with 38, Byrnes with 37, Chapin with 29, Ashley Ridge with 28, Wando with 26.50 and Goose Creek with 26.