Bamberg Ehrhardt and Calhoun County go back-to-back at Class A state track meet
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Columbia – Bamberg-Ehrhardt high school and Calhoun County high school are 33.9 miles apart on US-601 with a lot in common as they are two of the top Class A athletic programs in the state and now they share back-to-back class A track and field state championships.
The Red Raiders beat the Governor’s School to capture the girls title while Calhoun County defeated Blackville-Hilda to win the boy’s title.
“I felt if we did what we are capable of doing today we had a good chance to repeat,” said BE head coach Travis Wilson. “I want to make sure we to get the race, do our job and focus.
Coach Wilson continued, “Motivation was a big thing coming into the year. Winning last year put us in the hunted role and so we tried to stress it is harder to repeat. The girls started picking it up at the region and lower state meets.”
Calhoun County head coach Wayne Farmer is no stranger to back-to-back state championship as this is the third school that he has led to back-to-back class A state championships, the others being Allendale Fairfax and Scott’s Branch. It was also the 10th state championship in his career.
“Our focus was to come back and repeat. The challenge this year was that we became the hunted instead of the hunter. The biggest thing is the kids performed with no hick ups. We scheduled a lot of big meets to learn how to compete and it paid off today,” said coach Farmer.
The girls meet started off perfect for the Red Raider as their 4x100 team of Zyasia Whiley, Carmyn Folk, Keyaunjanay Corbit and Daisha Etheridge blazed around the track in a season’s best of 50.38 to win gold in the day’s first running event.
The 4x800 relay team also won gold in a time of 10:56.16. Kymyhia Jamison, Jayda Sanders, Nilayah Edwards and Rashida Quattara made up the team.
Sanders picked up a silver medal when she finished second in the 800 meters.
Ezariah Williams won a gold and silver medal for the Red Raiders in the Discus and shot put, respectively. She threw the discus 36.73 meters for a new personal record and set another personal best in the shot put with a put of 11.39 meters. Both events earned her Silver Elite performance. She also scored in the Javelin by finishing seventh.
Briaunjenai McMillian won a bronze medal in the Javelin with a toss of 32.94. She also scored in the shot put finishing eighth.
There were a few individual double gold medal winners. Bethune Bowman’ s Makiyah Johnson won the 100 and 200 meters. Her winning time in the 100 of 12.17 was a silver elite performance.
“It feels great to win two gold medals. I want this for a long time. Last year I came in second in both events. I put in a lot of hard work and it paid off,” said Johnson.
Riverwalk Academy’s Emme Herring won gold in both the 800 and 1600 meters while Blackville Hilda’s Breyanna Williams won gold in both hurdle events as well as winning a silver medal in the 200.
The Saints were led by Wofford signee Kamari Kelly. Kelly won the 400 meters in a time of 48.56 and then won the 800 meters in 2:03.55. He ran the second leg of the gold medal winning 4x800 meter relay team. He also ran the second leg on the 4x400 meter relay team which won a silver medal.
“These last couple of years to see all the hard work pay off. I very grateful for coaches and family and I just want to thank God,” Kelly said.
Joining Kelly on the 4x800 meter relay team were Kamron Johnson, Traveon Baker, and V’Jay Thomas while Baker, Eddie Coleman and Thomas were on the 4x400 relay team with Kelly.
Jamani Canty won two golds in the discus and shot put. His toss of 49.17 in the discus was a new personal best.
Also winning medals for the Saints were St. Julian Johnson won two silver medals in the shot put and the Javelin. He set personal best in both events with a toss of 45.68 in the Javelin and he put the shot 14.22.
Bringing home bronze medals were Kamron Kelly (800), Eddie Coleman (400 meter hurdles), and Darren Ben (Triple Jump). Ben also scored points in the high jump (4th) and in the long jump (8th).
In the 100 and 200 Da’Shaun Albany of Ridgeland Secondary School and Camari Brown of Hardeeville Jr-Sr high finished one-two in each race with Albany winning the 100 and Brown taking the 200.
Hunter Willis of Riverwalk Academy won gold in the 1600 and silver in the 800.
Blackville-Hilda’s Da’Montray Allen was a double gold winner as he won the 110 hurdles in a time of 14.84 and the 400 hurdles in 58.16.
Jordan Strong of Lewisville won two bronze medals in the long jump and high jump while capturing a gold in the triple jump
