Signing Day for six Rock Hill Bearcats

Six Rock Hill Bearcats were recognized May 17 in the school’s media center as they committed themselves to college athletics futures. Morgan Durant, C.J. McClure, Bryan Aguilar, Lance Crayton, Catherine Rithianos and Joey Teachout scrawled out their signatures in front of family, friends, classmates and teachers in one of the final signing days of the school year locally.

Morgan Durant

Morgan Durant has only played three years of soccer and yet she signed a scholarship to play at USC Lancaster Wednesday morning. Durant is planning to transfer to South Carolina to study business after her two years in Lancaster, but she’s excited to get two more years to continue her rapid soccer growth. That includes one of her favorite parts of playing goalie:

“Taking people’s legs out!” she said, laughing.

C.J. McClure

C.J. McClure will play college basketball at Clinton College after signing with the Golden Bears. He wants to be an architectural engineer, which will dictate his move following two years at Clinton.

“It’s a dream come true because I’ve been wanting to go to college since I was little,” McClure said.

Bryan Aguilar

Bryan Aguilar signed to play college soccer at Montreat after two years of varsity soccer with the Bearcats. He told the gathering that he felt wanted by Montreat’s coach.

“I’ve been working toward it but it really did hit me as a surprise,” said Aguilar. “Out of nowhere the coach texted me. So signing, yes, this is sort of a surprise.”

Lance Crayton

Crayton will play basketball at Brevard College where he plans on studying exercise science, potentially to become a coach. A strong student, Crayton played four years of varsity ball for the Bearcats.

“I’ve been working toward this my whole life, all 12 years of school, the hard work, the sweat and tears I put into this on the court and in the classroom, it’s all paying off today,” said Crayton. “And it’s a blessing.”

Catherine Rithianos

Catherine Rithianos is joining Lander University’s relaunched cross country program. She’ll study nursing and knows that running will lend her college life structure that should help her maintain her high academic standards.

“My grades actually drop in the gap between cross country and track,” Rithianos said. “Cross country is something familiar, I think it will help me in college.”

Joey Teachout

Teachout was part of four consecutive Rock Hill High cross country region championship teams and will continue running track and field and cross country at Anderson University. A high academic performer in the IB program, Teachout will enter a program that sets him up for an engineering degree through Anderson and Clemson.

This story was originally published May 17, 2017 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Signing Day for six Rock Hill Bearcats."