Southside Christian boys, Whale Branch girls defend Class A track and field state titles

           Columbia -- It was a beautiful Thursday night at Spring Valley High School’s Harry Parone stadium for the Class A track and field state meet where new personal records were set and new individual medals. However,  the team results were the same as they have been for the past two years as the Southside Christian School boys team and the Whale Branch Early College girls team defended their state crowns.

          This was Southside Christian's fourth consecutive boys title and Whale Branch’s third

consecutive girl’s title. 

          Depth was the key for both squads as both scored points in 11 of the 18 events and each brought home double digits in individual medals won.

          “This has been a special group and we will graduate a lot of them. They have been leader on the track, in the classroom and in the community,” said SCS head coach DeAnn Warpole. “I told the kids dream big because small dreams are not the power that stirs men’s souls and we have to go. And so, they did!”

          “We knew we would be strong in the distance events, but we had a great day in

the throwing events.”

          The Sabres took gold in all of the throwing events. In the discus, Micah McGowan won with a toss of 141 feet, 6.82 inches, while teammate Jeremiah Jackson took third and Jonathan Talton was eighth. Jackson won the shot put with a throw of 50-02.76 while McGowan finished fifth.

          In the javelin, Christian Kaiser won with a throw of 154-11.84 and Colt Sonneborn won the pole vault with a vault of 10-11.89.

          On the track, the Sabres brought home gold in the 400-meter dash, the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200 runs as well as getting second in the 800 and 1,600 and third in the 3.200 for a total of seven medals. They were led byvthe star of the meet in junior Grayson Gibbons, who won the 800, 1,600 and, 3200 and anchored the winning 4x800-meter relay team. His four golds brought his career total to 13 gold medals at the state meet.

          “First I want to give all the glory to God,” said Gibbons. “This is an amazing feeling. I was not sure if I would be able to pull it off and while winning the individual titles were great, there is nothing like the feeling of winning the relay with my teammates.”

          Stephen Fox also had an outstanding meet for the Sabres as he finished second to Gibbons in both the 800 and the 1600 and won a gold in the 4x800.

         The Sabres' Trenton Frey used a strong kick over the final 100 meters to run away from the field in the 400 dash and post a time of 49.98 seconds. It was just off his personal record of 49.64.

          Hudson Kennemore won the other medal in the distance events with a bronze in the 3,200 with a new PR OF 10 minutes, :18.19 seconds.

        The Sabres also brought home gold in both the 4x400 and 4x800 relays. Those joining Frey on the 4x400 were Dykan Ramos, Keldin Wrona and Luke Trbovich and the 4x800 was Fox, Gibbons, Trbovich and Frey.

        A junior who made a big impression at the meet was Blackville-Hilda sprinter Jaqual Holman. He won gold in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, outdueling Christ Church’s Jackson Repp in both events. Holman set new PRs in both events with a 10.83 in the 100 and a 21.98 in the 200.

       Holman ran the second leg of Blackville Hilda’s winning 4x100 relay team. Also making up the relay team are leadoff leg Jarm Priester, third leg Tamar Daniels and anchor leg Nama Anderson.

        “It feels great to win both events and it is all because of my coach. At the start of the season, I did not want to run track but my coach was like it is going to pay off and it did,” said a winded Holman.

        McCormick’s Drekevan Thomas set a new PR in winning the 110-meter  hurdles with a time of 14.25, while Christ Church's Jude Hall won the 400 hurdles is in a time of 56.22.

Calhoun Falls Jamarri Norman won the long jump with a leap of 23-05.56 and finished third in the high jump, while Calhoun County’s Amerr Guinyard won the triple jump and finished second in the long jump. He set a new PR in the triple jump with a hop, skip and jump of 46-05.87.

        Wallace Cheves of Christ Church won the gold in the high jump. He and Calhoun County’s JaVonta Simon both jumped the same height at 6-04.77, but Cheves had fewer misses at lower heights.

        In the girl’s meet, Whale Branch used its depth as well, but unlike Southside Christian, its strength was in the sprinting and jumping events. That's where the Warrirors scored 100 of their points.

        The Warriors started the meet off by winning the first event, the 4x100 relay, and they did it with an elite performance time of 47.79. The relay team was made up of Natali Aburto, Destiny Pryor, Larmore Pryor and Talaijah Bartley.

        “It was a total team effort today. I have a great group of seniors and it is going to be tearful in a few minutes,” said Whale Branch head coach Brad Taracuk. “This team is special. They bought into what we were teaching and wanting for our program. They are a very unselfish group and they would do whatever was needed for us to reach this level.”

        Destiny Pryor won the 100 on a lean at the end. She posted a time of 12.37, which was

just off of her PR of 12.30. She also took home a silver medal in the 200 with a time of 25.80

as well as in the long jump.

        Bartley took home three gold medals for the Warriors as she won the 400 hurdles adn the 100 hurdles in times of 58.36 and 14.55, respectively. The 14.55 was the only individual elite performance of the meet. She also took home a silver medal in the 4x400 relay.

        “This is amazing and to set a new PR in the hurdles showed all my hard work over the past four years had paid off,” said an excited Bartley .

       Also medaling for the Warriors were Faith Eugene finishing third in the 100, Larmore Pryor finishing third in the 200 and Imani Blackwell finishing second in the 100 hurdles.

        Larmore won a gold medal in the long jump with a leap of 16-11.96. In the triple jump Janiah Pryor took the silver medal with a jump of 33-07.15.

        Besides winning the gold in the 4x100, the Lady Warriors also took second in the 4x400 and fifth in the 4x800.

       Jayla Graham of Hannah-Pamplico won gold in the 200 with a time of 25.79 and had a fifth-place finish in the 100.

       Dixie had three gold medals in the 1,600, 3,200 and the 4x800. Ansley Prescott won

the 1,600 in a time of 5:15.80 and the 3,200 in a time of 11:30.69. Ashten Stoll brought home

silver in the 3,200 for Dixie. Joining Ansley Prescott and Stoll on the relay team were Rachel Prescott and Pressley Grier.

       Alina Uguz of Christ Church also won two golds. She won the high jump with a leap of 5-04.96, the same height as Rowan Stroble of St. John's, but she had fewer misses at a lower height. In the triple jump, Uguz posted a winning jump of 33-07.54.

      Stroble captured gold in the 400 hurdles in a time of 1:02.86 and also anchored the Islanders' 4x400 gold medal relay team. The rest of the team is Daeshi Buford, Tylash Alston and Da’Nez Sutton.

       McBee’s Raegan Griggs won the 800 in a time of 2:25.60.

      The shot put and the javelin events both came down to the final throws. In the shot, Allendale-Fairfax’s Trinty Mickell 's ast put was 36-07.37 for the win, and in the

javelin, Southside Christian’s London Rhodes had a final throw of 111-0,0.55 feet for the win.

       Bamberg-Ehrhardt Ezariah Williams won the discus with a throw of 112-00.43.