THE INDEX JOURNAL

Sports

VIKINGS POST STOUT TIMES AT STATE MEET

By KEVIN FIORENZO/Index-Journal sports writer

Published: Sunday, November 4, 2007 12:18 AM EDT

Emerald's Kevin Quan runs Saturday morning during the class AA

boys race at the state cross country meet in Columbia.

(Staff photo by Kevin Fiorenzo)

COLUMBIA -- Some goals were exceeded and other were not met on Saturday at the South Carolina High School League state cross country meet. Either way, few teams left the race overly disappointed in their performances.

Emerald High School’s girls and boys teams achieved top-10 finishes in the Class AA races, with the boys placing fifth, while the girls finished in eighth place.

The Vikings’ Hannah-Lee Fitter was the top Lakelands runner out of all the teams, exceeding pre-race expectations with a fifth-place finish. Mavrick Harris, also of Emerald, failed to set a personal record for the second straight week, but still managed to finish 11th. For their efforts, both runners achieved All-State honors, given to the top 15 finishers in each race.

“Our goal was to be top five, boys and girls, but I was real pleased to see we had an All-State boy and an All-State girl,” Emerald head coach David Payne said.

That was real nice and is just a testament to the work that they’ve been doing.”

In other races, Dixie came in eighth place in the Class A boys race with Andrew Evans leading the Hornets with a 12th place result. The Greenwood boys team was the only other area team to score with a 25th place result in the AAAA boys race.

One of the biggest differences in a race like Saturday’s state meet from a regular season race is the sheer number of runners. While it might seem the increased mass of competitors would make it difficult to find running lanes, coaches feel the runners excel against the heightened competition. “I think a lot of kids thrive on it; it helps them run a little faster,” Greenwood assistant coach Robby Templeton said. “They enjoy running in the big races like this.”

Fitter was one runner who clearly excelled with the added pressure. The freshman has stepped for the Vikings in the absence of the injured Stephanie Whitmire, but she still came into the race expecting to finish somewhere between 10th and 15th.

“I was hoping to get All-State, which is top 15, and then it became clear that I could probably get top 10, so I was really shooting for that,” Fitter said.

Fitter was sitting at 25th place after the first mile, but at that point she made some adjustments and began moving up after her slow start, something that was planned from the beginning.

“That was our plan. Wait a little bit for the first mile and then she moved up,” Payne said. “She just kept going and didn’t look back.”

Though she started feeling sick down the stretch as nerves began building up, Fitter managed to fend off the other runners in the final meters.

“I thought some people were going to catch me there at the end. It was hard, but it feels good now to be done and say I did it,” Fitter said.

Harris entered the race Saturday coming off setting a personal record 17:05 time in the Upper State finals last weekend. The senior had hoped to drop his time again in his final high school race, but he fell short at 17:12, still one second faster than his previous PR.

“The second mile I felt like I was picking up a lot (of speed), but I guess I didn’t as much as I thought,” Harris said. “I didn’t PR, so I was kind of disappointed in that, but I gave it my all, and that’s all that matters.”

In the AAAA girls race, Greenwood’s Jenna Ficklin had the inenviable task of running as the sole representative from her team. Despite that, Ficklin ran a personal best time of 21:50, nearly 30 seconds faster than her previous PR, while achieving a top-100 finish.

“Today’s race for her was tremendous,” Greenwood head coach Thomas Moore said. “What I’m happy about is she’s motivated not to get herself back to state, but her teammates. As a coach, to have somebody who’s truly interested in her team, that’s good for us.”

The Greenwood boys were led by juniors Sebastian Palecki and Josh Cabrera, who each ran under 19 minutes. Templeton was pleased with the results despite competing without top runner Josh Smith, who was taking the SATs.

“We had a couple juniors run really well today,” Templeton said. “I think based on the way the season’s gone, with the injuries and how hard these kids have worked, I think today was a success.”