Tri-county schools competed in state track meets this weekend

Steven Laval knew his team had a chance.

The Northwestern High School track head coach knew to win the 4A boys track state title at Saturday morning’s meet in Spring Valley, they had to beat Ridge View.

When the final scores came out, Ridge View took the state title with a score of 84, edging out the second-place Trojans’ 79.

“I thought everybody competed,” Laval said. “I knew going into the meet that it was probably going to be this close. ... We had some people that had some surprising performances, and that offset some people who maybe didn’t perform as we expected.”

A big boost to the Trojans came from twins Jayden and Jaylen Burris.

Jayden won both the long jump and triple jump competitions, while Jaylen finished second in both. Those performances combined for 36 team points for Northwestern.

“It begins and ends with them,” Laval said. “If they don’t go one or two in triple and long jump, we’re not even in that conversation. Those guys carried us as they have all season.”

Laval also credited the younger members of the team.

Sophomore Austin Smith finished fifth in the boys’ 400-meter run. Junior Jared Isley and freshman Devin Isley are returning from the team’s second-place boys’ 4x100-meter team. Sophomore Lydia Sasser finished sixth in the girls 800-meter.

For Rock Hill High School, first-year head coach Doug Macalpine said the track program has made major improvements since he first joined as an assistant coach with short distance running a decade ago.

Under the guidance of former head coaches David Thomas and Chris Price, the program began to flush out its coaching staff, and it’s been paying dividends.

The Bearcats’ boys track team finished tied for seventh with 33 points at the 5A state track meet in Spring Valley on Friday night, while the girls finished tied for 17th with 19 points.

A leading charge for Rock Hill’s placement on Friday was the performance of its multi-sport athletes.

Senior and former football linebacker Isaiah Palmer won the individual state championship for pole vaulting. Junior wide receiver Malik Clark finished third in the boys’ 100-meter dash. Junior girls basketball player Khamoni Rockeymore-Crews placed second in the girls’ 100-meter dash and third in the 200-meter dash.

Macalpine said he feels that those performances come from both the robust coaching staff at Rock Hill but also the athletes’ unique skill-sets from their respective sports.

He hopes more athletes from other sports come out to track, believing it is a rising-tides-lifts-all-boats situation.

“Especially with the football team we have, the athletes who walk these halls, we needed to change the culture to where if you’re an athlete, you do track,” Macalpine said. “We’ve been working really hard on that, and now we’ve brought tons of people to state. ... We’ve come a long ways.”

“I work to make athletes faster and (strength and conditioning coach Tyler Klipa) makes them stronger. I feel like that’s good for any sport and helps you perform better.”

Here is a full list of team standings and individual state champions from tri-county schools for the state track meets this week:

Class A Boys

Team: Lewisville, 12th; Great Falls, 22nd

Class A Girls

Team: Lewisville, 21st; Riverwalk Academy, 26th

Class 2A Boys

Team: Andrew Jackson, 21st

Class 2A Girls

Team: Andrew Jackson, 28th

Class 4A Boys

Team: Northwestern, 2nd; South Pointe, T-5th; Catawba Ridge, 14th; Lancaster, 22nd; Indian Land, 24th

Individual: Jayden Burris, long jump and triple jump (Northwestern); Garrett Brown, 1600-meter and 3200-meter (South Pointe)

Class 4A Girls

Team: South Pointe, 9th; Catawba Ridge, 14th; Northwestern, T-19th; York, 23rd

Individual: South Pointe 4x100m relay (Jayla Robinson, Amaiya Whitlock, Amiya Davis, Kavae Anderson)

Class 5A Boys

Team: Nation Ford, 2nd; Rock Hill, T-7th; Fort Mill, T-9th

Individual: Xavier Dixon, 200-meter (Nation Ford); Neale Johnson, 400-meter hurdles and long jump (Nation Ford); Isaiah Palmer, pole vault (Rock Hill)

Class 5A Girls

Team: Nation Ford, 4th; Clover, T-15th; Fort Mill, T-15th; Rock Hill, T-17th

Individual: Mia Royall, 800-meter and 1600-meter (Nation Ford)