South Pointe Wins First State Championship In Boys Track
Since the school was opened in 2005, South Pointe High School has been known as a football school, with eight state championships in nine appearances at the 3A and 4A classifications, most recently last December.
On Thursday night at Richland Northeast, the Stallions added a boys track and field win, holding off a late charge from May River to win the 4A boys track and field state championship by a half a point.
“Half a point winning the state championship? Can’t get no better than that,” South Pointe head coach Calvin McCullough said.
South Pointe’s win came after an unfortunate injury. While qualifying in the 4x100 meter relay for the state meet last week, Devin Isley, one of the state’s top sprinters in any classification, got injured.
“He tweaked something, so he didn’t run today,” McCollough said. “We were counting on winning the 100, 200, and 4x1. We came in fifth in the 4x1, but we only got one point in the 200.”
Instead of counting on the sprinters for a high score, the Stallions turned to the crew of distance runners who just happened to claim the school’s boys 4A cross country title last fall.
“We figured we were pretty good in the distance,” McCullough said. “They actually pulled through and got us not only the top points, but they also got some of the low-end points as well that kept added up.”
South Pointe took the lead with strong distance-running finishes. Senior Keller Brown finished first in the 3200-meter run with a time of nine minutes, 21.13 seconds. Brown finished just over 10 seconds faster than May River’s Talan Farrington. Stallions sophomore Copeland Crawford finished seventh to give South Pointe 12 points in the event.
Brown took second behind May River’s Jackson Wright’s 4:16.54 time in the 1600 run with a time of 4:16.71. Reece Adams and Luke Stralow finished fifth and sixth in the race as well to give South Pointe 15 points in the event.
“The 1600 I was coming in with a PR (personal record) of 4:18 and it was a 4:11 guy (Wright),” Brown said. “I knew that one was going to be more tactical. I was going to have to work for that one. I felt really good about my execution and just got past him at the last second. I got beat by .2 seconds, so I felt pretty good about that.
“But in the 3200 I ran it really well all season, I felt like I had the legs to just go and run hard and eventually people would drop off,” he added.
Jayden Finney took fourth place in the 800 run for an additional five points.
The team of Finney, Gray Shelton, Jett Shelton and Felix Cassidy took gold in the 4x800 relay with a time of 8:06.59, after the 4x100 team of Cash Truesdale, Ethan Howze, Jalen Davis, and Isley’s replacement took fifth place. South Pointe gained 14 points on those finishes.
Houze was the only top finisher for South Pointe in the dashes, taking eighth in the 200 dash for one point.
The Stallions picked up 14.5 points In field events. De’onta Watson took first in the long jump with an effort of 6.72 meters. Jalen Davis placed seventh and Cain Cousar eighth in the event. Jayden White tied with Darlington’s Donte McCray for seventh place in the high jump for the 1.5 points that clinched the win.
South Pointe had all of its points with several track and field events still being contested. The Stallions led May River 48-42, then 60-50, and then with White’s high jump result posted, 61.5-50.
The Sharks’ 4x400 team of Antonio Corvato, Daeton Z. Altacho, Braihilin Paylor and Brennan Chase finished second to boost the team score to 58. Zavier Polite’s sixth-place finish in the triple jump gave May River its total of 61 points.
Earlier in the afternoon the Sharks got first-place finishes from Wright in the 800 run (1:56.88) and the 1600 run. Farrington took fourth place in the 1600 and second place in the 3200.
In the dashes, Jeremiah Grant finished fourth in the 200 and Corvato placed eighth in the 400.
The 4x100 team of Mason Sweigart, Edward Cooper, Chase, and Grant placed fourth, and the 4x800 team of Farrington, Altacho, Xavier Flores, and Polite took third.
Hilton Head Girls win first title since 2017
On the strength of two golds in the relay races and distance runner Julia McKenna, who won gold in the 1600, second place in the 800 and fifth place in the 3200, the Hilton Head girls track and field team held off a late charge from Westside to claim its first state championship since 2017 and fifth in school history.
Seahawks head coach Frank Holland credits McKenna as being a big help in boosting the middle distance and distance runners.
“She is a dynamic runner,” Holland said of McKenna, who took a warm interest in track by her sophomore year but really got into the sport as a junior. “She fell in love with it and all of a sudden her times were incredible to a point where she couldn’t get enough running. She encouraged other girls to compete and train with her. She’s a big inspiration.”
McKenna, a senior and University of Tampa signee, finished atop the field in the 1600 run with a time of 5:00.96. With her finishes in the 800 and 3200, she earned the Seahawks 22 points. Also finishing in the 800 for Hilton Head were Aly Saleme and Stella Morgan, who placed fourth and fifth respectively, to give the Seahawks an additional nine points in that event.
McKenna was also part of the 4x800 team that took gold with a time of 9:41.33. Her teammates were Ava Pankuch, Saleme, and Autumn Pearson.
“I felt like I did really well considering all four events even though it can get really tiring,” McKenna said. “I just wanted to end it in a really good way and that’s why I decided to do all four. I’m really happy about how my mile and 4x8 went.”
The 4x400 team of Jourdyn Mootry, Pankuch, Saleme and Kyndal Cohen beat out second place Bishop England by less than two seconds with a time of 3:58.29.
Cohen won the 400 dash with a time of 55.26. She also took eighth in the 100 dash. Mootry took eighth in the 200 dash.
Helana Fister tied with May River’s Lily Gluck for fifth place in the pole vault for 2.5 points.
The Seahawks totaled 65.5 points to the Rams 58 points. Hilton Head overtook host team Richland Northeast midway through the event, holding a 51.5 lead to the then-second place Cavaliers. Bishop England later vaulted into second place with 41 points to Hilton Head’s 55.5 points.
Westside’s highest track finishers were Na’ima Jackson, who took fourth in the 100 hurdles, and the 4x100 relay team of Jamy’a Tucker, Ta’Nijah Speed, Gervonna Williams, and Amber Henry, which also placed fourth. Henry took sixth in the 100 dash.
The Rams’ push for the title did not come until the field events scores started to fall onto the scorer’s table.
Janilah Rhodes took gold in the long jump with an effort of 5.35 meters and won another gold in the triple jump with an 11.52-meter jump.
Behind Rhodes in the long jump was Williams, who finished fifth, and in the triple jump Williams placed second and Brooke Bryant placed sixth.
Bryant placed fourth in the high jump, and Rhodes took eighth in that event. Madison Richardson took fourth in the shot put.
All tolled, 46 of Westside’s 58 points came from field events. While the Rams’ scores came late enough to bolt into second place, Hilton Head stockpiled enough points to have a 7-plus point cushion on the evening.
“We all trained really hard as a team, probably like any other team, but we all really love each other as if we’re a family,” McKenna said. “We all support each other, the sprinters support the distance runners and the distance runners support the sprinters.”
Holland said that while McKenna graduates, she has left a mark on the program. Among returners are Cohen, whom Holland noted broke three school records just as McKenna did this year, and Mootry, along with several underclassmen and seventh- and eighth-graders.
“We’ve got some young athletes coming up as well, so we’ve got a pretty good solid future,” he said.
