COLUMBIA – While competition in the boys events was tight, with Ridge View edging Spartanburg for the win, the Blythewood girls team dominated the field Saturday at Spring Valley’s Harry Parone Stadium.
The Bengals sprinters placed high and racked up points early, finishing with 107 points on the day to claim their third straight state championship and first in the 5A Division I configuration. Blythewood’s total was 53 points better than second-place Spartanburg’s 54 points.
“We had to perform a lot better than we did last season because we had a lot of hiccups last year,” head coach Aleshia Hawkins,” We just came out and performed the way we needed to perform.”
That they did.
Sophomore sprinter Peyton Hightower won the 400-meter dash for the second straight year, this year with a time of 24.46 seconds. She finished fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.46 and ran a leg for the gold-winning 4×400 relay team. Junior Olivia Taylor, who finished fifth in the 100 dash with a time of 12.03, also finished fifth in the 400 dash with a time of 55.60.
Hightower’s sister, junior sprinter and point guard on the 5A Division 1 state basketball championship Bengals Hayley Hightower, took second in the 800 run with a time of 2:10.27 and also ran legs in the 4×400 and 4×800 races.
Both sisters say they enjoy competing with each other and alongside each other, and spending time with the team as everyone prepares to do their best for events.
“I like to see her succeed on the track and I think she does the same for me,” Hayley Hightower said. “It’s amazing to see both of us competing and running on this level.”
Peyton Hightower added, “It’s great having someone to cheer for, not only as a teammate but as family. I root for her and she roots for me.”
Both sisters said they and the team came into Harry Parone Stadium Saturday with the focus on keeping their championship at Blythewood.
“We’ve been working extra hard this year, trusting our coaches, setting some goals, and coming here with a plan,” Hayley Hightower said. “We weren’t going to get away from our plan. We knew what we had to come here and do, it didn’t matter about the class or whatever, we just had to come in here and get the job done. To get another state championship in track means a lot to me. I’m really proud of this team.”
Added Peyton Hightower, “This is No.3 in a row for us so we know what we needed to do coming in here. We’re just proud that we came out on top,” she said.
“We knew that there were going to be some teams that would challenge us. We knew that we had to stay humble and do our best. We did a really good job of coming in and not worrying about the outside noise and doing what we had to do.”
What they did was place as high as possible, in every event possible.
Eighth grader Brooke Bramlett took first in the 100 hurdles with a time of 13.88. Bramlett also finished seventh in the 100 dash and ran a leg on the 4×100 team.
Senior Aminah Rhone won gold in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:01.74. She finished third in the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.41, and she also ran a leg in the 4×400.
Sophomore Romell Garway finished seventh in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.24.
Blythewood racked up 26 points in the relays with a first place in the 4×400 and second placings in the 4×100 and 4×800.
The 4×400 team of Rhone, Alexandra Francique, Hayley Hightower, and Payton Hightower won gold with a time of 3:48.77.
The 4×100 team of Bramlett, Taylor, Brittany Benson, and junior Tylar Moore took second with a time of 47.02.
The 4×800 team of junior Anna Kelly, senior Mallory Hogue, Scarlett Baker, and Hayley Hightower took second with a time of 9:23.80.
Hogue and Kelly also placed in the 3,200 run. Hogue placed third with a time of 11:17.49 and Kelly placed fourth with a time of 11:19.47.
Sophomore Alexis Jones placed fourth in the high jump with a mark of 1.55 meters.
Moore placed fifth in the long jump with a mark of 5.59 meters.
Coach Hawkins credited the success of Blythewood to supporters throughout the school and community.
“From Blythewood, the high school, the parents, the younger brothers and sisters come out, it’s just wonderful,” Hawkins said. “Everyone takes everything seriously. They want to get to the next level, and I tell them, you work. You don’t work, you can’t make it to the next level.”
Noting the youth on the team, the program isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
“We’re just losing three scorers this year, but everyone else is coming back,” Hawkins said. “It’s going to be exciting in 2026.”
