Mountain View girls track and field team wins AAA state championship
Kailen Kramer of Oceanside clearing 12'6 during the AAA State Championship Pole Vault.
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Columbia – The Mountain View girls track and field team accomplished something that is very rare in high school sports, winning a state championship in their first year of competition as they scored 87 points to capture the class AAA state championship.
The upstate took the top three places as Greer Middle College and Powdersville finished in second and third, respectively.
“This is awesome,” said Mountain View Head Coach Mike Johnson. “To watch the girls, train hard all year starting in the fall. To but into the process all the way to the end result a state championship.”
Coach continued, “This is what we prepared for starting back in March. We slow progressed as the year went and we got the girls to understand that it’s not running fast in March but running fast in May.”
The Stars took home 8 medals with five being gold, a silver and two bronze while also scoring in sixth other events. They were led by sophomore Keanna Tate. She won the 200 and 400 meters establishing new personal records along the way of 24.60 in the 200 and 55.55 in the 400. She anchored the 4x100 gold medal winning team and led off the 4x400 gold medal winning team. She became just the 15th girl to win four gold medals at a state championship meet.
“I wanted to PR in both the 200 and 400 and I am excited to have done it. In the relay’s I just wanted to my best for the team,” said Tate.
“Keanna is a special talent. We need to work on getting her stronger. She has a bright future on the track,” said coach Johnson.
Amari Rambert won the other individual gold medal for Mountain View in the 400 hurdles also setting a new PR winning in a time of 1:02.42. In the 4x100 and 4x400 she ran the third and fourth legs, respectively. She took home three golds. She also scored in the 200 (6th)
Emma Mills finished second in the 100 for a silver medal and finished third in the 200 for a bronze medal while Avery Richards placed third in the shot put. Mills was also on the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams running the second keg in both.
The other two members of the gold medal winning relay teams are Brionna Boggains (4x100) and Akyra Chamberlain (4x400). Boggains also scored points in 100 (5th) and 200 (7th) while Chamberlain scored in the 400 (8th).
Rounding out the scoring for Mountain View was the 4x800 relay team of Serena Taylor, Elara Taylor, Cammy Gregory, and Olivia Cantrell, they finished fifth.
Shamya Wilkins from Broome took home two gold medals winning the long and triple jumps and St. Joseph’s Catholic’s Eva Cifuni also won two gold in the 1600 and 3200 meters. She set a new PR in the 3200 with a time of 11:36.04.
Grace Davis of Powdersville also had a strong meet just missing out on the sprint triple. She won the 100 in 11.93 and finished second in both the 200 and 400.
Oceanside Collegiate’s Kailen Kramer threatened the state record in the pole vault. After clearing 12’6” she attempted to clear 13’1” but was unable to so she settled for the gold.
1 Mountain View Prep HS 87
2 Greer Middle College Charter 76
3 Powdersville 71
4 Broome 67
5 St. Josephs 43
6 Walhalla 39.5
7 Swansea 32
8 Chapman 30
9 Pendleton 29.33333334326744
10 Hanahan 29
11 Christ Church 26
12 Woodruff 25
13 Belton-Honea Path 24
14 Georgetown 18
14 Keenan 18
16 Oceanside Collegiate Academy 17.5
17 Silver Bluff 15
18 Loris 11
18 Southside Christian 11
20 North Charleston 9
20 Aynor 9
22 Newberry 7
23 Orangeburg-Wilkinson 4
24 Waccamaw 2
25 Crescent 1
