Iron Horses gallop toward glory

The Philip Simmons High School cross country teams lived up to their No. 1 rankings Nov. 16, as the Class AA state qualifiers were contested at Fort Jackson in Columbia.

 

This weekend, the Iron Horses will find out if being the No. 1 team equates to being a state champion when the championships are contested in Newberry.

 

The Iron Horse boys dominated the field by grabbing the top five individual places to finish with a perfect score of 15 in the “Odd Division,” which was way ahead of second- and third-place finishers Brashier and Greenville Charter, which tallied 52 and 82 points, respectively. The odd and even divisions were determined by a school’s state ranking.

 

Meanwhile, the Iron Horse girls appear ready to defend their state championship as they were impressive in a 31-59 victory over Academic Magnet. Brashier was a distant third with 73.

 

The Iron Horse girls might just be the deepest squad in Class AA. Team scores are computed by the top five finishes. That means Bicho Alomar’s effort was not part of the score. She was the sixth best Iron Horse runner of the day yet finished No. 10 overall in the individual race.

 

Joseph Wright led the Iron Horse boys with a time of 15:53.10 over the 5K course to win the gold medal. Pierce Walker won the silver medal and Brian Stambaugh earned the bronze. Grady Castiglia finished No. 4 while Matthew Perry placed fifth.

 

Avah Mallek led the PSHS girls with a gold medal time of 18:15.57. Laura Perry was sixth, Lilah May seventh, Anna Alomar eighth and Flynn Taylor was ninth.