Wilson Hall boys cross country wins title

        By Dennis Brunson

hssr.com Associate Editor

Sumter – And that’s why you play the game, or in this case, run the race.

Projected to finish fifth in the SCISA AAAA boys cross country state meet at the Heathwood Hall course in Columbia on October 26, Wilson Hall drove back to Sumter with the state championship trophy in tow.

The Barons won their first state title since 2015, scoring 71 points to edge John Paul II by one point.

WH head coach Reid Schwartz said the title came as a very pleasant surprise.

“We knew we had an outside shot of doing it,” Schwartz said. It was all depending on if everybody hit their personal records, if a couple of things went our way, if we won some one-on-one battles. It was definitely a surprise.”

Sophomore Caulder Williamson led the way. He finished second overall in a time of 15 minutes, 49.08 seconds while Heathwood Hall’s Jack Wilcox won in 15:42.08. Williamson broke the school record set by Connor Smith by three seconds.

Freshman Trip Hunt joined Williamson on the All-State team by finishing eighth in 16:37.45. Sophomore Abel Ayres finished 11^th in 17:00.45 despite injuring a hip during the race. Junior Ben Rabon was 17^th in 17:16.50, and freshman Gavin Getz rounded out the scoring by finishing 33^rd in 17:41.95.

Though no one could know it at the time, a strong finish by Rabon was the difference between a state championship and a second-place finish for the Barons.

“Ben Rabon passed a John Paul runner coming down the chute,” Schwartz said in reference to Brayden Frickel, who finished 18^th and half a second behind Rabon. “That was pretty critical.”

Aiden Bradford and Wil Alexander finished 46th and 53^rd, respectively, for the Barons.

The Wilson Hall girls had a strong showing as well, finishing second to Heathwood Hall, which won its fourth straight state title. Wilson Hall had 59 points while Heathwood had 46.

Senior Molly Jones led the Lady Barons, finishing fifth overall in 18:47.56. That was a new school record, the third time Jones set it this season, bettering her time by over 30 seconds.

Junior Mary Ellen Thorne and eighth-grader Emmie Williamson finished ninth and 10^th, respectively, to join Jones on the All-State team. They too surpassed the old school record entering the season, Thorne finishing in 19:19.46 and Williamson in 19:21.65.

Sisters Mary Foley, a freshman, and seventh-grader Jane Foley finished 16^th and 24^th, respectively. Mary had a time of 19:51.23 and Jane a time of 20:13.65.

Marsha Kate Skey and Ann Phillips Zitzke added finishes of 48th and 70th.

With Jones the only senior on either team who ran in the state meet, the future indeed looks bright for Wilson Hall.

“We’re excited to be putting the program back on the map,” Schwartz said. “It looks like we have a lot of good years in the future.”