Orangeburg Prep sweeps SCISA Division II track and field state meet

Orangeburg – Ho hum. The Orangeburg Prep girls track and field team won a fourth straight state championship on May 3. So to stir up some excitement and break the monotony, the OP boys team won its first state title in over 20 years.

Of course, neither of the championships are run of the mill for the Indians athletes or head coach Brooks Smith. He said winning the dual championships is a very special moment.

“They're excited about doing that,” Smith said of his teams. “The last time that happened in Division II where both teams won was in 2018 when Palmetto Christian did it.”

And for Orangeburg Prep to pull it off, it came down to the boys 4x400-meter relay, always the final event in track meets. In order to win the meet, the Indians had to beat John Paul II in the event – not win it, just beat JPII.

In order to beat John Paul though, OP ended up having to win the event. The Orangeburg Prep team of seniors Daytron Moorer, Bradin Williams and Jacob Smith and sophomore J’Syri Parker won in a time of 3 minutes, 41.74 seconds. John Paul II was second in 3:42.55.

        “Those were two relay teams that really wanted it,” Coach Smith said. “They were giving everything that they’ve got. I told my guys, ‘This is it. Do you want it? You’ve got to give me everything you’ve got.’ And I got great legs from everyone.”

OP won with 86 points while John Paul II finished with 82. Shannon Forest was third with 62 followed by Spartanburg Christian Academy with 61 and Greenwood Christian School with 53. It gave the OP boys team its first state title since 2003, a team that Smith was a member of in his sophomore year.

“I told them it’s been a 21-year drought,” the head coach said. “It’s about time we won it.”

           The Indians also got a great individual performance from Latron Moorer. Using baseball vernacular, Moorer hit for the cycle, finishing first in the triple jump, second in the 200-meter dash, third in the long jump and fourth in the 100 dash.

           “He had been running a leg on the 4x100 team,” Smith said of Moorer, who tied for the most individual points with 28. “He had qualified for state in all of these other events, and we felt like him being in every individual event (athletes can compete in four events) was what we needed for us to have the best chance. We needed him to have a big day and needed him just to perform, and that’s what he did.”

           The other first-place finish for the Indians came from  Colston Thomas, who won the discus. Thomas, who has signed with Wofford, was fourth in the discus.

The 4x800 relay team of Bennie Yang, Kai Yange, Bradin Williams and Jacob Smith, who will be a distance runner for Presbyterian, finished second. Parker finished second in the 110 hurdles and fourth in the 400 hurdles. Brayden Gramlin was third in the javelin and fourth in the discus. Hart Wiles was fifth in the discus and sixth in the shot to score points, and Avery Ravenell was fifth in the high jump.

Also finishing fifth was the 4x100 relay team of Jahmir Locke, Parker, Daytron Moorer and Williams.

        The Orangeburg Prep girls had a bit easier go of it, finishing with 108 points compared to 90 for second place Thomas Sumter Academy. Shannon Forest was third with 68 followed by John Paul II with 42 and Northside Christian Academy with 41.

               “This was the strongest girls team that we’ve had,” Coach Smith said. “They’ve put in the work. We knew going into the season how strong this team could be. This year was more of the depth really showing up, getting thirds and fourths.  We had ones like Mary Katherine Evatt and Mary Legare Delaney finishing strong and then you put the other points together it adds up pretty quickly.”

           Evatt, who has signed with Converse, was the meet’s high scorer with 28 points. She won the shot and the discus, finished third in the pole vault and fifth in the javelin.

           “We’ve only got one senior girl, but it’s Mary Katherine, and she’s been a big, big piece in the success we’ve had,” Smith said. “In four years of high school , she never got beat in the shot put or the discus. She has shown great leadership and is the epitome of our girls team – a hard worker, a selfless individual. That echoes throughout the team.”

Delaney won the long jump, finished second in the 200, fourth in the triple jump and fifth in the 100.

        Others picking up second-place finishes were Emmaline Dangerfield in the 100 hurdles and Blakely Garrick in the 400 hurdles along with the 4x100 relay team of Naomi McCutchen, Morgan Gue, Emma Doremus and Dangerfield and the 4x400 team of McCutchen, Garrick, Doremus and Gee Gee Riley.

               Doremus finished third in the 100 hurdles, while Morgan Newsome was fourth in the pole vault. Riley was fourth in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump. Also finishing fourth was the 4x8 team of Anna Bledsoe, Kate Holstein, Delilah Howe and Annabelle Hunter.

               Thomas Sumter’s Hannah Burnside won both the 100 hurdles and the 400 hurdles. Other individual event winners for the girls were Thomas Sumter’s Anna Luzzi in the Javelin, Mckee Kent of Spartanburg Day School in the 800 run, Aubrey Glenn of Shannon Forest in the pole vault, Carolina Academy’s Dakota Jernigan in the triple jump, TSA’s Bayleigh Donshauser in the high jump, Shannon Forest’s Anna Ward in the 3,200 run, Northside Christian's  Kendall Murray in the 1,600, Aly Salem of Heritage Academy in the 400, Canvas Good of Faith Christian in the 200 and TSA’s Malaya English in the 100.

               John Paul II won both the 4x8 and 4x4 relay events, while Thomas Sumter won the 4x1.

               There were a pair of 2-event winners for the boys in Raleigh Wesley of Bethesda Academy and Garrett Payne of Shannon Forest. Wesley won both the 100 and 200, while Payne claimed the high jump and the 110 hurdles.

Other individual winners were TSA’s William Wright in the 400, John Paul’s Zach Henderson in the 800, Hans Payne of Palmetto Christian in the 1,600, Ethan Linder of Spartanburg Christian Academy in the 400 hurdles, Northside Christian’s Trevor Hoffman in the long jump, Spartanburg Christian’s Ethan Cloys in the shot, Palmetto Christian’s Sam Smith in the pole vault and Alex Corley of Palmetto Christian in the javelin.

Winning the other relay events were Thomas Sumter in the 4x8 and Greenwood Christian in the 4x1.