Third time is the charm for Waccamaw boys track and field
Southside Christian senior Grayson Gibbons wins more gold to close out prep career.
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Columbia – After finishing state AA runner-up twice in track and field in their history the Waccamaw Warriors proved that the third time was indeed the charm as they scored in 14 of the 18 events to post a score of 90.5 to win the AAA Boys state championship at Richland Northeast.
Powdersville finished runner-up for the second time in three years with 76 points followed by first year program Mountain View with 63 points.
“This was a special year with this group. We actually had someone in every single event with seven events with at least two athletes qualified. It really was an effort by everyone to score every single point. We weren’t worried about PR’s today; it was all about the points and finishing higher than our opponents” said Waccamaw Head Coach David Milliken.
Coach Continued, “Everyone battled today; I’m just so proud of everyone. We had several guys that ran in four events today. We really gutted it out.”
The Warriors started the meet in good shape as the 4x100 relay team of Andre Grate, Adrian Grate, Randal Rogers, and Zaireon Skinner finished fourth. Skinner won the first medal of the day finishing second in the 100 meters to earn silver. He also scored in the 200 with a fifth-place finish.
Adrian Grate also scored points in the 100 and 200 as he placed fourth and sixth, respectively while Andre Grate added a seventh in the 110 high hurdles and a sixth in the high jump.
Wade Leventis won the Warriors lone individual gold medal as he ran away from everyone in the 400 meters posting a new personal record of 47.86. He won the event by almost three seconds. He scored points in the 200 meters finishing seventh.
One of the Warriors that ran in four events was distance runner Wilson Rutherford. He was third in the 1600 to bring home a bronze medal while also placing fourth in both the 800 and 3200 meters. He scored 16 points in his three individual events.
He ran the third leg of the silver medal winning 4x800 relay and was joined on the team by William Martin, William Howard, and Aden Perry.
The 4x400 relay team of Martin, Howard, Adrian Grate and Leventis wrapped up the meet by winning the event in a time of 3:24.27 to win the final gold medal of the meet.
Also scoring for the Warriors were Martin seventh in the 1600, Leander McCarthy fifth in the 400 hurdles, Cam Blake fifth in the pole vault, and Leon Womack fourth in the discus.
The other big story of the AAA meet was end of the career of Southside Christians Grayson Gibbons. He won gold in both 1600 and 3200 meters for the fifth year in a row. He won the first four in class A. He had also won the 800 meters the past for years in class A. His win in the 3200 meters made him the most decorated track and field athlete in state history. He has 13 individual golds to go with four relay golds then add in his five consecutive state cross country golds for a total of 22 gold medals. He is headed to Anderson University to continue his running career.
“Number one, it is all god. I wouldn’t have been in this position if he hadn’t blessed me with the ability do this this. I want to thank all my coach and my family for all they have put in to me. It is hard to hang up the jersey. I have come to love Southside and it is going to very emotional for me,” Gibbons said.
Mountain View's Shamon Black took home four medals from the meet. He is the number 110 hurdler in the state and proved by winning the event in 13.90. He won two bronze medals in the 100 and 200 and a silver in the 4x100 relay.
Crescent's Amiri Acker won gold in both the 100 and 200 meters. He also picked up a gold and silver as a member of the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relay teams.
1 Waccamaw 90.5
2 Powdersville 76
3 Mountain View Prep HS 63
4 Greer Middle College Charter 57
5 Southside Christian 50
6 Crescent 38
7 Orangeburg-Wilkinson 36
8 Chapman 32
9 Silver Bluff 30
10 Belton-Honea Path 26.5
11 Hanahan 24
12 Pendleton 20
13 Aynor 19
14 Georgetown 18
14 Christ Church 18
16 Newberry 16.5
17 St. Josephs 16
18 Woodruff 15.5
19 Fox Creek 13
20 North Charleston 11
21 Broome 8
22 Loris 6
23 Oceanside Collegiate Academy 5
23 Keenan 5
25 Swansea 4
26 Union County 2
26 Walhalla 2
