COLUMBIA – The Fairfield Central boys track and field team faced competition Friday night from Philip Simmons, the 2024 3A state champions who came down to 2A this year.
While the Iron Horses got close, the Griffins sprinted past them and claimed their second straight state 2A championship at Spring Valley High School.
“We broke through last year with a lot of young kids,” Fairfield Central head coach Raymond Harrison said. “We returned a lot of kids who scored points last year, so I knew we had a pretty strong chance to win it again this year. All season long, I knew Philip Simmons was going to be tough to deal with.”
With wins and top placings in the 100-, 200-, 400- and 800-meter dashes and runs, Fairfield Central collected 65 of is 101 points on the night. Philip Simmons finished second with 82 points and Mid-Carolina took a distant third with 44 points.
Fairfield Central’s depth in the dashes kept the points coming. The Griffins ran three sprinters for the 100-meter dash, and four in the 200 and 400 dashes. Senior Tydarion Grier took first in the 100 with a time of 10.31 and the 200 with a time of 21.37 seconds. Junior Jayden Boyd took second in the 100 and third in the 200.
“We put hard work in, and hard work paid off,” Grier said. “Slow feet don’t eat.”
Grier, a senior who was a running back and receiver for the Griffins and was a Shrine Bowl pick in 2024, also won gold as part of the 4×100-meter relay team with Boyd, sophomore TyQuarius Shannon, and junior Jamie Brown. Grier placed sixth in the long jump.
Brown took gold in the 400 dash with a time of 48.61. Teammate Kenyan Douglas, a sophomore, took third with a time of 49.90, and freshman Da’Qwan Kelly took fourth with a time of 50.13. Brown was the anchor leg of the 4×400 team, which included Douglass, Kelly, and junior Brenton Mack, and put an exclamation point on Fairfield Central’s performance at the meet with a first-place time of 41.12.
“It was a whole bunch of grinding man, day and night, dreaming, praying about it,” Brown said. “All glory to God, we all worked together, we just wanted to be great. We’re trying to reach for the future, make the young kids see how great we want to be, and whatever we accomplish, make them want to accomplish.”
Senior Hank White was the only Griffin running the 800 run and he claimed gold with a time of 1:53.32.
Natalie Mickle, the only girls representative for Fairfield at the meet, took third place in the shot put with a throw of 10.56 meters.
Junior Marlon Smith took sixth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 59.96.
Among the Philip Simmons finishers, only the 4×800 relay team claimed gold, finishing with a time of 8:14.66.
Senior Corey Steed finished fourth in the 100 dash, and second in the 200 dash. Junior Cameron Steed finished eighth in the 400 dash, which accounted for 14 of Philip Simmons’ points.
The Iron Horses had multiple finishers in the 800-, 1,600-, and 3,200-meter runs. Sophomore Stone Sweatman finished third and senior Joseph Wright finished sixth in the 800 run; senior Pierce Walker took second, junior Trent Manning took fifth, Wright took sixth, and freshman Griffin Tollison took 8th in the 1,600 run; and Walker took third, freshman Matthew Perry took seventh, and freshman Grady Castiglia took eighth in the 3,200 run. These finishes netted Philip Simmons 34 points.
The Iron Horses’ 4×100 relay team’s second-place finish behind Fairfield Central, the 4×400 team’s eighth-place finish gave them nine points.
In the field events, senior Trey Hensley finished sixth in the pole vault and senior Matthew Yaun took third, junior Luke Robinson took fourth, and sophomore Jack Robinson took fifth in the javelin, all for 18 points.
