Soon followed the distinction of being the fastest Class AAAA girls 4X100 relay team in the state.

Along the way, records fell and first-place finishes were the norm. The question was, how would the girls from Rock Hill High School hold up when the pressure was at its highest.

The answer came Saturday at Columbia's Spring Valley High School in the first event of Saturday morning's state meet.

The Lady Bearcats are state champions after burning the track with a time of 47.86. It wasn't their best time of the year -- not that far off -- but good enough to leave six other teams trailing in their wake.

For Erika Owens, Gabrielle Lee, Maya Stewart and Tierra Williams, the win wiped out a bad memory.

"After what happened last year, we made it our goal to come here and win,'' Owens said. "They DQed us last year, saying we made an exchange out of our lane. We didn't think they were right.

"So this was very satisfying, felt great. And when I finished the 200 today, it was the last race of my career.

The 200 was the third of three events that Owens, the relay team's lone senior, competed in. She also ran in the 100 shortly after the 1x400 relay and walked away from the track with three state championships in her track finale.

The third race was the Class AAA boys 4x100, and quick as you can say "ready, set, go," another championship was in the book. This time it was Chester, with the team of Devin Jackson, Terrell Springs, Gene McCaskill and Thomas Meadows beating the field with a 42.56.

It was a fitting sendoff for Chester football and track coach Victor Floyd, who is leaving today for Brunswick (Ga.) High School to conduct spring football practice before returning to finish out the school year.

"The boys team talked about what we wanted to do today, and that was to do our best and leave coach Floyd with good memories,'' said Jackson, who also won the Class AAA 100. "He tells us what we need to do to win and we listen. We might not win every time, but because of him we try as hard as we can.''

The wait was short for the next gold medal and it was Chester again. The second event was the 100 hurdles (110 for the boys) and Shakita Davis beat the field to the finish line with a time of 15.06.

Four events down. Four races in each. Six of 16 goal medals in the bank with the dew on the grass still wet.

The championship train slowed down slightly the rest of the day, but that didn't stop the locals from adding to their gold supply.

Northwestern's girls put on a huge rush, getting championships from Mary Kate DuBard in the 1,600 and 3,200, Emily Smith in the high jump and Kimberleigh Riggs in the pole vault.

In one of the most exciting races of the day, Northwestern's Patrick Cunningham and three other runners reached the finish line neck-and-neck-and-neck-and-neck in the 400 hurdles. Examining the video of the finish by track officials showed Cunningham had leaned a little farther than the other three and crossed the line first.

Chester got another, this one from Micah Wessinger. She shrugged off a second in the 1,600 earlier and breezed to the championship in the 800.

But as much as all eyes were on the individuals, they turned to the girls teams as the meet wound down to the final two events. The shot put was still going on and the 4x400 had yet to be run.

At that point, Northwestern's girls led with 64 points, Spartanburg was second with 57 and Fort Mill was third at 56.5. Fort Mill had won only one event, the 4x800 relay on Friday night, but was in contention because of the good finishes by its athletes who didn't win.

So the waiting game was on for Northwestern, hoping to win its third team championship since 2003.

Spartanburg picked up six points in the shot and Northwestern two, leaving the Lady Trojans with a a 66-63 lead. But Northwestern didn't have a team in the 4x400 and all coach Calvin Huggins and his girls could wish for was that Spartanburg would finish seventh (two points) or eighth (one point).

The Lady Vikings were fourth and got five points. Fort Mill was second and got eight, making the final score: Spartanburg 68, Northwestern 66 and Fort Mill 64.5.

"That was a tough way to lose,'' said DuBard, who has signed to run cross country and track at Georgia Tech. "We were hoping to pull it out.

"It was exciting to win two golds, but we had other girls that did well today. Now that my high school career is over, I plan to take a break from running in meets. Instead, I'll wait for my offseason schedule from Georgia Tech and get ready for college.''

Chester's boys were second.