Reclaiming the hardware

The Bishop England High School cross country program celebrated its biggest day since 2006 when the Bishop girls won the Class AA state championship on Nov. 10 while the boys claimed second place in the Palmetto State.

 

“Overall, it was a great day,” Bishop England coach Tony Colizzi said. “The girls started the day off with a great race and watching them celebrate the announcement of their championship was a good way to end the season.”

 

The girls claimed their first state title since 2007 and fourth overall with a 40-47 victory over Greer Middle College at the Sandhills Research Center in Columbia. Landrum finished a distant third place with 119 points.

 

Greer Middle College denied the Bishop boys their third state championship in a row with a 31-58 victory over the Bishops. Academic Magnet was third with 92 points.

 

It was the same order of finish as 2006 when the BE girls were golden and the boys finished with silver.

 

“Many years we have one team really excited about bringing home a trophy and the other team a little disappointed with the finish to their season,” Colizzi said.

 

The Bishop girls had five runners earn all-state honors with top-15 finishes.

 

Nora Brahim led the Bishops with a second-place finish of 19 minutes and 24 seconds over the 5K course. Madison Riley and Grace Buss both concluded their first season as members of the team with all-state efforts, fishing sixth and seventh, respectively.

 

Marlee Asmer, who finished 12th and Nini Clarke, who was 13th, were the other all-state selections. Bo Rosato and Olivia Seymour also were impressive.

 

“Going into the state meet, the girls knew they had to run well,” Colizzi said. “We spent the week focusing on our team rather than on GMC. We told them they could bring home a title if they ran like they were capable of running. No one needed to try to run above their abilities.”

 

BE BOYS CROSS COUNTRY 

 

Justin Hafner, who was golden at the state swimming meet earlier this fall, led the Bishops with a first-place finish with a time of 16:00. JJ Romano was fifth and Gabe Hislop finished ninth to earn all-state recognition.

 

Marc Brahim was 18th, Charlie Tessier was 28th, Joseph Condon 29th and Andrew Curl finished in 33rd place.

 

“The boys wanted to bring home that three-peat but Greer Middle College got the best of them,” Colizzi said. “The Greer Middle College athletes ran great races and deserved the title.”

 

The future looks bright for both the Bishop boys’ and girls’ teams.

 

 “The boys’ team is young and we return our top-nine runners for next season,” Colizzi said. “The boys are looking forward to battling with Greer Middle College again next season.”

 

The girls’ team that captured gold this season is also young but talented.

 

“Next year looks great for the girls’ team,” Colizzi said. “They return their top-eight runners. If they work as hard next year as they did this year, they should be battling Greer Middle College for the title.”