BE boys win; DaPore takes Class A title

COLUMBIA — Bishop England's two-year Class AA girls cross country dynasty came to an end Saturday at Sandhills Research Park, but the Bishops boys upheld program honor by winning a state championship for the first time.

The Bishops boys, led by individual champion A.J. Fitzsimmons, finished with a decisive 47-110 victory margin over three-time defending champion Pendleton.

"It's been a long time coming for the boys team," said Bishop England coach Tony Colizzi.

"They've battle and come up short a number of time, but today they put it all together and ran a great race.

This is a bit of a surprise because we lost quite a few guys from last year's team. I knew we'd be good, but not this good. This is a team that jelled and worked real well together."

The added bonus was Fitzsimmons' individual title. He became Bishop England's first state champion since David Luhrs prevailed in1975 when the state meet was still an open, no-classification affair.

"I just wanted to run my race and see what might happen," said Fitzsimmons, who clocked in with a winning time of 16 minutes, 32 seconds.

"It was nice to win, but I was more excited about the team championship. I'm so excited for all the guys. It's all about everybody working hard and pulling it together and doing great things when it mattered the most."

Fitzsimmons, who was fifth a year ago, had plenty of support. Fellow seniors Kelly Toomes and John Pasierbowicz and junior Sid Houting all earned all-state honors. Toomes finished in third place, Pasierbowicz was sixth and Houting just made the cut with a 15th-place finish. Senior Christian Gaeta, who finished 22nd, was the other BE scoring runner.

It was a tough day all around for the Bishops girls, who finished in seventh place — their lowest finish at the state meet since 1999.

Defending medalist Jeanne Stroud had to settle for fourth place this time around, and two key supporting runners had to drop out while on the course.

Class A

Academic Magnet senior Allan DaPore won his third straight Class A boys championship, becoming only the eighth male runner in state annals to retire as a three-time winner.

"I didn't realize the wind was so much of a factor until I saw my time," said DaPore, whose winning time of 17:42 was significantly higher than his two previous state postings.

The Raptors finished second in the boys team standings for the third year in a row.

Class AAAA

Defending Class AAAA boys state champion Wando entered the meet as the favorite and ranked No. 1 in the final coaches poll of the season, but the Warriors finished fourth behind Dorman, Fort Mill and Ridge View. But at least Timothy Tyler (6th) and Josh Fitts (11th) did earn all-state recognition.

Stratford's girls and boys teams made the state Top 10 cut together for the first time since 1994. Danielle Sams (9th) and Bobby O'Brien (15th) earned all-state honors as the girls placed eighth, and the boys finished 10th.