Bishop boys, Wando girls claim cross country victories

COLUMBIA -- Wando's girls ended a 33-year state cross country championship drought Saturday at Sandhills Research Park, winning the Class AAAA title by a commanding 63-130 margin over Dorman.

It was the Warriors' first triumph since winning the open-classification girls state meet in 1976.

Bishop England's second straight Class AA boys championship and individual runs to glory by Jeanne Stroud of Bishop England and Stratford's Jasmine Polite were the other major Lowcountry highlights at the season finale.

"The girls were highly motivated this season after finishing fourth last year, which was OK but below expectations," said Wando coach Maria Domin.

"It started back in June when they began to put in the miles and that dedication paid off today."

The Warriors entered the meet ranked No. 1, but the pressure of being the favorite had no adverse effect on the team.

"I'd rather be in an underdog position, but we kind of rose to the top at the Coaches Classic meet here early in the season and we were able to maintain that level of performance the rest of the season."

Seniors Lauren DiNicola and Brennan McDavid paced the winning effort by placing fourth and 11th, respectively. Freshman Georgia Compton joined her elders on the all-state team by finishing 14th.

For the second year in a row, a rebuilding Bishop England boys' team developed into a championship squad. This time, the new-look Bishops emerged with 56-78 edge over runner-up Liberty.

"This team came together about halfway through the season," said Bishops coach Tony Colizzi.

"The young guys stepped up and the team just gelled. Coming in it looked like a rebuilding season again, but somehow things started to mesh. Amazing."

All five of BE's scoring runners cracked the top 20 with sophomore Nathan Leach (3rd), senior Sid Houting (5th) and sophomore Gabe Thesing (14th) earning all-state recognition.

Houting, an all-state runner last season with a 15th-place finish, and junior Tyler Slonecki (19th) were the only runners from last year's state championship lineup back at the starting line.

Stroud returned to the top after failing to defend her 2007 title run a year ago. The BE senior leader was the runaway girls' winner with a time of 18:32.87, which Colizzi said was 32 seconds faster than her previous personal record. Samantha Waters of Landrum was second is 19:13.08.

It was the third fastest time of the day in any classification.

"I really wanted to make up for last year," said Stroud, who placed fourth at the 2008 finals.

"I had a really good year. I trained hard to get ready and I never felt this strong at the end of the season before."

Polite was a surprise winner in the AAAA race, taking advantage of a mishap by Summerville's Sydney Hazel in the final quarter of the mile. Hazel beat Polite at last week's qualifying meet, but the Green Wave junior went down and did not finish the race.

Polite then held off Mauldin's Alexa Neiling, the defending state runner-up and the pre-race favorite, to become the school's first state champion, boy or girl.

"In no way did I think about winning this today," said Polite.

"All I was trying to do was run through the pain to help my team."

Stratford's team championship bid fell short, but the Knights' fourth-place finish was the best at state in school history.