LowcoSports.com
The Whale Branch girls finished second, the boys were fourth, and the Warriors brought home four gold medals from the SCHSL Class 1A Track & Field Championships on Saturday at Lower Richland High School.
Led by state champions Kynew Barnwell and Talaijah Bartley, as well as double silver winner Kaylyn Caldwell, the Warrior girls amassed 71 points to finish runner-up to Southside Christian (83).
Barnwell won the 800 with a time of 2:35.75, and Bartley blazed to gold in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.94 and added a seventh-place finish in the 800. Caldwell won silver in the 100 hurdles (17.77) behind her teammate and took second in the 400 hurdles.
The Warriors finished third in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, and Diamond Wright placed fifth in the 100 hurdles and sixth in the high jump.
Whale Branch also had two champions on the boys side, as Xavier Chaplin and Richard Parker claimed state titles. Chaplin won the shot put with a mark of 46 feet, 1.5 inches, and placed third in the discus with a 125-foot toss, just three feet off the winning mark from Blackville-Hilda’s Ahmad Smith. Parker won the 110-meter hurdles in 15.72 seconds and placed sixth in the 400 hurdles.
The Warriors finished second in an incredibly close 4×100 race with a time of 43.47 seconds, just three one-hundreths of a second behind C.A. Johnson. Trenoyne Greene finished fourth in the 100 and seventh in the 200, Mason Griffin was fifth in the 400, and Jaylen Roberts placed fifth in the discus.
