Orangeburg Prep Girls Track Wins Sixth Straight State Title
By Dennis Brunson
hssr.com Associate Editor
Orangeburg – The Orangeburg Preparatory School girls track and field program has now started putting state championship rings on the other hand.
The Indians won their sixth consecutive state championship on May 1, winning the SCISA Division II crown at the Orangeburg Prep Athletic Complex.
Orangeburg Prep head coach Brooks Smith said bringing home state title trophies never gets old.
“tt’s always nice to win,” Smith said. “This one was a little tougher for as coaches because we knew we had a strong team. It was hard for us to lose on paper, so that made it more stressful for us as coaches whereas we were able to use the underdog role the last couple of years.”
The Indians won with 130 points with First Presbyterian of Shannon Forest finishing second with 112. Spartanburg Day School was third with 91while Thomas Sumter Academy finished fourth with 40 and Greenwood Christian School fifth with 28.
Orangeburg Prep used its depth to pick up the victory as 13 athletes scored points. The Indians were led by junior Mary Legare Delaney, who was the high point scorer in the state meet for the second consecutive year.
Delaney won two events and finished second in two others to score 36 points. She won the 400-meter dash in a time of 1 minute, 00.48 seconds and won the long jump with a distance of 17 feet, 1 inch. She finished second in the 200 in 26.61 seconds and second in the triple jump in 33-05.
“Mary Legare brings a lot of points to the table,” Smith said with a laugh. “She’s just such a competitor. She trains hard and expects to go out and win.”
Smith said Delaney’s victory in the 400 along with sophomore Naomi McCutchen’s fifth-place finish were pivotal in Orangeburg Prep coming away with a comfortable victory.
“When we were trying to figure out who to put where, we the 400 is where we decided she needed to be,” Smith said of Delaney, who owns the school record in the 400 but didn’t run it as much this year as in years past. “The coaches said, ‘We need you there.’ We have a vigorous 400-meter program that we do.
“Picking up 12 points (10 for Delaney and 2 for McCutchen who also had a fifth-place finish in the javelin at 88-09)) in that event was huge. It took the pressure off of when it came to the final even of the 4x4(00-meter) relay.”
Freshman Blakely Garrick had the Indians’ other first-place finish. She won the 400 hurdles in 1:09.80. She finished second in the 100 hurdles in 17.88 and fifth in the triple jump at 29.05 1/4 to finish with 20 points.
Sophomore Gee Gee Riley finished second in points with 22. She finished second in the 400 hurdles (1:10.31) and third in both the long jump (16-02 7/8) and the triple jump (31-08). She also ran a leg on the second-place 4x100-meter relay team (52.53) along with seventh-grader Carson Cue, McCutchen and junior Emmaline Dangerfield.
“Gee Gee is like our Swiss Amry knife,” Smith said. “We’ll try her at one event this week and have her in our back pocket when we might need her for something else.”
Morgan Newsome was the lone senior to score points. She finished second in the pole vaul with a height of 08-06. Eighth-grader Jordyn Baldwin was fourth at 06-11 7/8 and freshman Ella Sarvis was fifth (06-11 7/8).
Eighth-grader Kennedy Lawtson finished third in both the 100 hurdles (18.15) and the 400 hurdles (1:14.19. Cue finished fifth in the 800 run (237.22).
The 4x400 relay team of McCutchen, eighth-grader Erika Martin, Lawton and Cue finished second (4:26.16) and the 4x800 team of Cue, Laston, eighth-grader Delilah Howe and eighth-grader Hannah Bair finished third (11L01.56).
Smith said the secret to Orangeburg Prep’s success is how it works together as a unit.
“There is no doubl that this is a team that works together,” he said. “These girls all pulled for each other, believed in each other and helped each other out.”jUNI
LIVINGSTON, WILLIAMS, JUDY BASDEBALL ALL-REGION
Junior Marshall Livingston, junior Maxx Judy and sophomore Cholly Williams were selected to the All-Region 1-AAA baseball team.
Livingston led the Indians in hitting with a .360 batting average. Judy finished with a .325 average and Williams finished at .320.
After losing its entire starting lineup from last year’s AAA state runner-up team, Orangeburg Prep finished the year with a 13-13 record.
The Indians went 1-2 in the state tournament. They lost to Hilton Head Prep, the team they lost to in the championship series, 5-0 in their first game. Orangeburg Prep rebounded to beat Patrick Henry Academy 5-4 in an elimination game. Freshman Cam Jolley hit the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning for a game-winning home run.
The Indians were eliminated with a 4-3 loss to Spartanburg Christian Academy.
SCHURLKNIGHT, LAMBRECHT,
HARTZOG SOFTBALL ALL-REGION PICKS
Senior shortstop Prestan Schurlknight, senior catcher Hannah Lambrecht, junior second baseman Calee Hartzog and sophomore pitcher Natalie Hall were named to the All-Region softball team.
Schurlknight, who will be playing collegiately at Lander, was chosen as the Co-Region Player of the Year. She finished with a .521 batting average.
Lambrecht batted .491, Hartzog hit .449 and Hall batted ,421,
Orangeburg Prep finished the season with an 11-14 record. The Indians went 1-2 in the state tournament. They beat Spartanburg Christian 10-6 in the opener before falling to now 5-time state champion Pee Dee Academy 12-2 in five innings and fell to Williamsburg Academy 8-7.
