PSHS cross country teams perform well at Palmetto State Cross Country Festival

The Philip Simmons High School cross country teams made great strides last year with impressive efforts at the state meet thanks to some strong individual efforts – and team depth.

The Iron Horses, under new coach Josh Michael, fared well at the recent Palmetto State Cross Country Festival, which was hosted by Columbia International University.

The girls’ team won the meet, while the Iron Horse boys claimed third.

“After months of hard work, and entering the season with lofty goals, the Iron Horses were excited to finally race and they did not disappoint,” Michael said.

The Iron Horse girls scored 68 points to beat out Catawba Ridge, which claimed second with 99 points. Ben Lippen School was third with 105.

The Iron Horses had three eighth-graders finish in the top eight. Hailey Meyers finished sixth with a time of 21:19.60. Josie May was seventh and Emmy Wood eighth. In addition, Samantha Brown and Grace Ward rounded out the scorers for the Iron Horses.

The Iron Horse boys, who finished fourth at the state meet last fall, were led by a trio of juniors placing in the top 15 to finish third with 87 points. Ben Lippen claimed first place in the 15-team event with 67 and James Island was right behind with 73. Noah Ward, the defending state champ, finished second with a time of 16:44.50, which was 13 seconds off the pace of Beaufort’s Marlon Belden. Henry Wood finished in 14th place and Colin Nemeth was 15th. The Iron Horses also received scoring efforts by Mitchell McCorkle and Mac Hebebrand.

DORIAN EFFECTS

Both Philip Simmons and Bishop England did not play their scheduled football games last weekend, and there’s a good chance both teams might only play nine regular-season games because of Hurricane Dorian.

The two schools did not have classes all of last week because of the storm, and that meant neither school could hold practices because of High School League rules.

Philip Simmons was scheduled to play Charleston Math & Science, but Iron Horse coach Eric Bendig said the opposing school would not reschedule the game that was scheduled for Sept. 6.

Bendig’s team played in Week 0, which means the Iron Horses have an open date on Oct. 25. Bendig would like to pick up another opponent, but that might be hard to accomplish this late in the season.

Bishop England was scheduled to play James Island, but the storm wiped out that game as well. Coach John Cantey hoped to play Monday, but athletic director Paul Runey nixed that idea.

“We went a whole week without practice, and there’s no way our kids are going out there and playing a game because of the situation,” Runey said. “It wasn’t worth the risk.”

Runey said he doesn’t expect the High School League to extend the season like it did last year when the area was under a hurricane threat because only schools along the coast were affected, and the games in Week 2 were non-conference games that won’t affect league standings.

Bishop England, 1-0, travels to Philip Simmons, 0-2, for a 7:30 p.m. encounter on Friday.