Palmetto Christian Academy continues to build their track and field program

Neill Kirkpatrick • April 14, 2025

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By Neill Kirkpatrick

Special to the HSSR

Mt. Pleasant – The Palmetto Christian Academy Eagles track and field teams has finished in the top ten at the SCISA division II state meet last year and the program continues to improve and is getting larger as a number of young kids have joined the program.

Because of the youth on the team head coach Dale Hoover’s expectations are a bit tapered but his program has always been more working to get the most out of his team while developing their confidence that they can get better through hard work.

“There is always a fine line between expecting too much from athletes and pushing them to be their best and with the youth of our team, my goal for this season is to develop the competitive desire within our athletes while tempering expectations to make sure they don't feel defeated if they fall short,” said coach Hoover.

Coach continued, “I see this year as building for our future and that approach allows me to celebrate what we have instead of focusing on how young we are. As in past years, these kids continue to impress me with their work ethic and strong character. They genuinely cheer for each other and that continues to make coaching here a lot of fun for me.”

Another thing that has been exciting for coach Hoover has been the addition of one his former athletes to his coaching staff in Lauren Pernell. She along Chris Mercer coach the distance runners.

The Eagles return the top two pole vaulter s in SCISA in seniors Sam Smith and Gavin Wease. Smith set a new SCISA pole vault record last season at the state meet with a vault of 14’8” while Wease finished second with a vault of `14’. They both recently competed in the All-American Track classic where Smith finished fifth and Wease finished 16^th.

The distance events are where the strength of the Eagles boys’ team and they return several key runners in juniors Trey Wilson, freshmen Alex Avinger and Heyward Neely and seventh grader Lucas Rodriguez-Porcel. Avinger is the top returner having run in the state meet last season finishing in the top 15 in both the 800 and 1600 meters while Neely ran in the 1600- and 3200-meters finishing 12^th and 8^th respectively.

Seventh grader Jackson Pollard has a bright future in the sprints and has run a 13.47 while eighth grader Davis Padgett has improved tremendously and currently ranks second in the state among 8th grade boys for Javelin.

Junior Josie Hurley placed second in the 1600 and third in the 800 at last year’s state meet and is the leaders of the girls team. She has a personal best of 2:32.8 in the 800 and 5:47.69 in the 1600.

Our fastest distance runner has been 6th grader Evelyn Mercer, who has broken our school records for the 3200 and 1600 this year. She is currently ranked #2 in the nation among 6th grade girls and 6th in the nation for the 1600.

Sophomore Sydney Geiger has been the leader in the field events in the long and triple jumps. She also runs the 100, 100 hurdles and 200 meters.

Also returning to the girls team in the distance events are freshmen Caton Newbern and seventh

graders Elizabeth Craft and Blakely Cole and in the sprints are sophomore Teagan Delaney, freshmen Anna Grace Works and eighth grader Lola Perry.

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