Ed’s Ramblings: The 2024 State Cross Country Championships

The 2024 SCHSL State Cross Country Championships was held for the second year at The Farm in Newberry. This year is one of the latest dates the meet was held. The first few meets, at least from 1970 through 1973, the State XC Meet was held in December.  This year was cold but nowhere near as cold as some of those early meets.

2024 was the 55th boys and 49th girls State Championships.  We crowned six new state championship teams, runner-ups and individuals.  Over the history of the meet we have had 164 of these titles for the boys and 135 for the girls.  This year 187 teams scored (95 boys/92 girls).  Since the first official meet in 1970 5592 athletes have crossed the finish line (3,093 boys/2,499 girls).  Fifty-seven different schools have won at least one boys state championship.  Thirty-six different schools have at least one girls state championship.  Sixty boys schools and 47 girls schools have now earned at least one runner-up award.

This was the largest number of athletes to ever cross the finish line at a SC Championship.  There were 1,309 finishers this year, just over a 100 more than the previous high in 2016.  Of course, this was to be expected with the addition of two more races, even though in 2016 we were qualifying between 18 and 20 per class.

Two of the team races were determined by two points and one of these only three points separated the top three teams.  In SC XC history there have been five ties, ten races determined by one point.

Another oddity is that this year four schools won both the girls and boys races - Fort Mill in 5A Division 1, Greer Middle College in 3A, Bluffton in 4A and Philip Simmons in 2A.  This has only been accomplished three times before - in 2013, St. Joseph's, Hilton Head and Riverside.

Congratulations to the following teams and their coaches on winning the state meet.  Along with their names I have put their number of State Championships in that gender.

The individual titles were just as memorable. Three of the girls races came down to the final sprint in the last few meters, with one race determined by only one one-hundredth of a second.  All of the girls' first names began with an "A" or an "E."  In fact, in the top 10 places of the six girls races 21 of the first names began with an "A" or "E."  I know that is nerdy. And to add to the nerdy, three of the first names of the boys winners begin with "G."  

A special congratulations goes to Ashby Williams (Daniel) for winning her second title this year and in 2022.  And these two girls won their second consecutive titles - Avah Mallek (Philip Simmons) and Ansley Prescott (Dixie).  Ansley won her race by over two minutes (over the next year I plan to determine the smallest and largest differences of first/second place, but I am fairly certain that Ansley's will be the greatest). Quinn Swanton (Academic Magnet) won his second consecutive boys title.  And the most impressive win of the day was by Southside Christian's Grayson Gibbons who set a SC State Record by winning his fifth consecutive title.  The previous record for the boys is four by James Quattlebaum of Christ Church.  The girl's record is six straight by Diana Willard of Pelion and Swansea.

The fastest times of the championships went to Swanton with a time of 15:46.47 and to Avery Belk of James Island with a time of 18:31.19.

The windy and cold conditions kept the runners from running faster times.  In fact no winners broke into the top 15 winning times.  The chart below shows all of our winners, the number of times they have won, their school and the number of times an athlete from that school has won.

2024 South Carolina individual cross country winners championships

The XC State Championships are held and directed by the SC High School League.  They are the ones that secured and paid for the site and all of the USATF officials, trainers, timer and parking attendants.  However, there were a few volunteers from the SC Track and Cross Country Coaches Association that played a vital role in making sure that the races were run efficiently and safely and that every athlete was accounted for in every race in the State Championships as well as at the SC State Qualifier the weekend before.

Three of our vice presidents came and helped out during their classification races.  Our secretary, Nikki Ridgeway was at the State Meet all day on the first day to help.  But, including myself, only five of us endured all 22 races at the Qualifiers and all 12 of the races at the Championships.  So SPECIAL THANKS to Leavell Wall (timer) Eddie Sanders (past VP), Greg Hall (current VP) and Matt Oberly (current President) for your expertise, dedication and commitment to the sport.

Congratulations to all of the teams and athletes that competed in the State Championships.  I hope that it was a great experience for each of you.  Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.  The SCTCCCA is your voice to the SCHSL as well as your principal and athletic director.  Make sure that you attend our winter meeting in January so that your voice can be heard.  Matt will be sending out information about making proposals to our coaches.  

See you in January.

Guest column by Ed Boehmke, coached for 38 years in South Carolina.