Bishop England wins lower state title in track
Bishop England and Hanahan, two of the state’s most successful track and field programs, had huge efforts from its athletes during the penultimate weekend of the season. Next up: the state championships, which will be held at Spring Valley’s Harry Parone Stadium.
The Bishop England boys’ team won the Class AA Lower State championship, which was held at Woodland High School. The Bishop girls finished in fourth place.
The Hanahan boys competed in the Class AAA state qualifier at Lower Richland High School. Although the meet wasn’t officially scored, the Hawk boys did extremely well.
The Bishop boys are aiming for their fourth state title in the programs history. Hanahan is seeking its fourth straight state title and fifth in six years.
“Saturday’s meet went exceptionally well for us,” Bishop England coach Tony Colizzi said. “I would say the boys outperformed our expectations. We qualified in every event we expected, save for one, and got a couple through that we did not expect. We are sending 16 entries to the state meet. The boys’ team is a very strong team and should be one of the favorites to win a state title. They will be battling with many of their usual opponents, Woodland, Academic Magnet, Pendleton, Powdersville and Waccamaw. If they boys compete like they did at lower state they should have a great showing at state.”
The boys qualified nearly everyone who competed at the lower state meet. The boys qualified in the 100m (Jake Mock), 200m (Mock), 400m (Carter Crowley), 800m (Aiden Richter and Nick Dibona) 1600m (Aiden Ricther and Sam Boykin), 3200m (Boykin and Johnny Busche). They also qualified in the 4x400m and 4x800-meter relays.
The boys also qualified two in the pole vault (Sam Lemon and Albert Lang), two in the discus (Jacob Wilkins and Joe Story), one in the shot put (Wilkins).
The Bishop girls also fared well, qualifying in six events: Emma Lawrence qualified for the 800m and 1600m runs. Kennedy Jordahl qualified for the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. Denise Devaney qualified in the 3200m as well. The 4x800m team (Lawrence, Ashlyn Ritter, Shawna Swanson, Grace Iaria, Jo Jo Tompkins and Jordahl) qualified. The girls also qualified three in the pole vault: Tompkins, Allison Seney and Adele Blalock).
“I look for the girls to have a strong showing at state with many individuals finishing near the top in their events and the team finishing in the top 5,” Colizzi said.
The Hawk boys got a big effort from Quincy Mitchell in their bid to win another state title.
Mitchell, arguably the top sophomore sprinter in the state, turned in a 10.59 in an extremely fast 100-meter dash. For sprinters broke the 10.8 mark. Mitchell also finished fifth in the 200-meter dash with a clocking of 22.09.
“Like I said earlier, we have really been working on Quincy’s starts out of the blocks,” coach David Morbitzer said. “That’s where he shaved time off his race.”
Hanahan finished third in the 400 meter relay and third in the 4x400-meter relay.
Domique Green and Tre Smalls finished 1-2 in the shot put.
“We had some ups and downs,” Morbitzer said. “We have to run hard Saturday. If we do that, we have a chance.”