State champs! After being so close last year, Fort Mill boys take 5A championship

No one used the word “redemption” on Friday.

But a year after the Fort Mill boys’ cross country team came oh-so-close to a 2020 state championship — a year with an offseason defined by “extra work” and a good track season and the return of several key pieces — the Yellow Jackets finished the job.

The Fort Mill boys earned a 5A state championship at the Sandhills Research and Education Center in Columbia on Friday. They finished with a team score of 62, edging out second-place TL Hanna by 38 points.

“We weren’t going to let that happen again,” top Fort Mill finisher Devon Sibley told The Herald after Friday’s race, referencing his team’s second place finish at states last year. He still remembers he and his teammates linking arms as they waited for the scores to be announced last year, hoping for a championship that didn’t come.

“It got to us,” he added. “And it really pushed us forward to where we are now, (motivated us) to put the extra work in.”

Sibley, a junior who’s been a leader on the team all year, finished second in the race overall with a 16:03.35. He was then closely followed by junior Evan Wey (fifth place, 16:13.72), senior Jackson Dawson (10th, 16:25.98), junior Evan Ickert (17:01.65) and freshman Isaac Campbell (17:04.69).

The Yellow Jackets were then rounded out by sophomores Tanner Long (17:38.19) and Liam Eident (17:43.50).

With the first-place trophy tucked tightly under his arm, as if he was protecting it, head coach Lee Whitaker told reporters post-race that he was proud of his team on Friday. And that means his entire team, he said — including a key contributor Friday who surprised his coaches and teammates all year with his improvement.

“All the kids ran great today, Devon coming in as runner up,” he said. “But our (runner who finished fifth) today: He’s a kid who started out the season in a JV position, and he’s gotten better every single week. Every single week. And then today, he was our No. 5. And being a No. 5 in a meet like this is just incredible.

“His name is Isaac Campbell. Isaac was the heart of our team today, for sure.”

Like last year, Sibley hopes to use what happened at this year’s state championships as fuel for a special track season, he said.

“I’m looking for low mile times, low 800 times,” he said. He then smiled: “In track season, we’re looking to go big. And next year (in cross country), we’re hoping to run it back.”

Fort Mill, Nation Ford, Northwestern results

The standard cross country race is 5,000 meters, or about 3.1 miles. There were 114 runners in Friday’s boys’ race and 118 in the girls’ race.

The day’s top-15 finishers earned All-State recognition.

Here’s who else impressed in the 5A state championships from high schools in York, Chester and Lancaster counties.

▪ The Nation Ford boys finished ninth on Friday with 240 points. The Falcons were led by freshman Mason Haynes, who finished 21st and recorded a time of 17:01.19. After him, the Falcons were helped by Chase Johnson (17:23.48), Alexander Bentley (17:23.67), Townsend Smith (18:03.75), Justin Storms (18:30.66) and Charles Hall (18:32.59).

▪ The Fort Mill girls finished third overall on Friday with a score of 115 points. These Yellow Jackets were led by eighth-grader Alivia Cleveland — who finished fourth with a 18:48.76 time. She was followed by eighth grader Avery Moriarty (10th, 19:37.95), senior Angel Kravitz (15th, 19:54.48), seventh-grader Mia Zook (20:45.03), senior Kelsey McGuire (20:53.63), seventh-grader Kaylee Rovenstine (21:02.05) and freshman Brinley Ellis (21:09.04).

▪ The Northwestern girls, fresh off a Region 4-5A title, delivered the program its first state championship appearance since 2017. The team finished 11th overall and performed well despite not having an All-State performer: The Trojans were represented by senior Addison Meeker (20:22.76), junior Madeline Smith (20:43.69), junior Aamori Gaines (20:48.32), senior Evalie Janes (22:22.51), junior Kaitlin Marquis (22:30.94), seventh-grader Grace Harvey (22:58.85) and seventh-grader Skyler Laval (23:18.25).

▪ Brittan Mobley Meulman of Rock Hill finished 14th — with an All-State distinction — and recorded a time of 19:53.15.

This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 1:47 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.