BE boys' track and field win fourth state title

The Bishop England High school boys’ track and field team picked up its fourth state title in the program’s history as afternoon slipped into nighttime Saturday at Harry Parone Stadium on the campus of Spring Valley.

The Hanahan boys, meanwhile, were denied their fourth straight state title. Throw in a third-place finish by the Bishop England girls, and those were the local highlights as the High School League’s season concluded.

The Bishops won the Class AA state title with a 70-38 victory over Waccamaw. Powdersville was third with 35.5

Hilton Head topped Hanahan 94-68. Greer was third with 48.

Waccamaw won the girls’ AA title with 69. Woodland was a close second with 67 points and the Bishops were third with 56.

The Bishops won the boys’ title with some impressive performances in the distance events.

“As a coaching staff we were really impressed with the boys’ team this year,” coach Tony Colizzi said. “They were a young team but they competed like a veteran team. Some of that is due in part to the senior leadership on the team. We knew going into Saturday’s meet that they had a very good chance of winning the meet and they proved us right. They won by more points than any other team did on Saturday. The distance boys alone scored more points than the second-place team did.”

The Bishops won only gold medal, the 4x800-meter relay. Freshman Aiden Richter was third in the 1,600-meter run and fourth in the 800-meter run. Another freshman, Sam Boykin, placed second in the 3,200-meter run and fourth in the 1,600.

Nick DiBona and John Busche placed in the 800 and 3,200 runs respectively. Sam Lemmon had a 12-6 effort in the pole vault while the 4x400-meter relay team claimed a bronze medal.

Hanahan boys take second in Class AAA

Hilton Head topped Hanahan 94-68 for the boys’ Class AAA title thanks to some great efforts and depth in the distance events. Greer finished third in the team standings with 48 points.

The Hawks had only one first-place finish on the day. Dominique Green won the shot with a put of 54-2 ¼, nearly a foot farther than teammate and silver medalist Tre Smalls.

However, Quincy Mitchell did not capture any gold medals after last week’s impressive effort at the state qualifier.

He ran a 10.54 in the 100-meter dash last week but was more than a tenth of second slower, finishing second at the state. He also finished second in the 200-meter dash. The Hawks gained a silver medal in the 4x400-meter relay.

BE girls take third

Like their male counterparts, Bishop England fared well in the distance events.

Emma Lawrence led the way with a first-place finish in the 800 with a time of 2:26.52. She grabbed a silver medal in the 1,600.

Adele Blalock claimed a silver medal in the pole vault and fourth in the 400 hurdles.

Other key performers included Kennedy Jordhal, Denise Devaney, Allison Sened and Jo Jo Tompkins.

“Emma and Adele had very good days, as I knew they would,” Colizzi said. “I was a little surprised when Adele decided to vault half way through the vault session as she had blown out her shoulder twice in the last month. She vaulted extremely well considering the amount of pain she was in during the event. Another one who impressed me was Jo Jo Tompkins, who only picked up vaulting three weeks ago to try to score some points at region since Adele was injured. Jo Jo improved very quickly and amazingly competed at the state meet.”