NEWBERRY – Fairfield Central’s Hank White and Richard Winn Academy’s Hayden Branham continue to get faster.
Branham broke the 20 minute mark for the first time in the Eagle girls’ cross country program history last week when Richard Winn hosted their first home meet of the season. Branham’s 19:59.40 time was not only the fastest of the day for the girls, but it also set a new school record, according to MileSplit.com.
Griffin standout Hank White had a new person record on Oct. 7 at the Wendy’s Invitational with a 16:49.00 time. White continues to improve and close in on Joshua Mosley’s 5K record of 16:05.89, set at the Pelion Strictly Running Invitational in Sept. of 2021, according to MileSplit.com. White currently holds three Fairfield Central track and field records in distance running – the 800m, 1600m and 1 mile.
This past weekend, Branham and White, along with the rest of the Griffin cross country team, competed in the Bob Jenkins Coaches Classic at Newberry College’s Cross Country course.
Richard Winn
Branham, a seventh-grader, was the sole runner for Richard Winn. Through the muddy and hilly course, she placed fourth out of 272 runners in the Championship Girls division. Her 20:08.98 time was just seconds behind first place Jais Ward of Ben Lippen (19:30.79), Elloree Flippin of Carolina Homeschool (19:57.33), and Keatley Sack of Brashier (20:05.74).
Branham and the Eagles hosted the SCISA 1A Region IV Championship meet on Wednesday, but results were not available by The Voice’s press deadline. The team will run in the SCISA Championships on Oct. 28.
Fairfield Central
Though the Griffins boys team finished in 36th place out of 47 teams running the Coaches Classic on Saturday, White finished in the top 10 and two runners had season-best times on a muddy and hilly course.
White’s 17:24:22 time put him in seventh place out of 315 runners in the boys’ championship division. Gavin Moore of Beaufort was the top finisher at the 16:23.62 mark.
Sidney Wilson was the Griffins’ second finisher at 19:59.81 for 119th place. Jared Dixon ran his season-best time (21:47.27) for a 223rd place finish. Krishi Patel crossed the line at the 22:28.23 mark, and Brenton Mack finished at 24:31.65. Jamari Johnson had his season-best time of 25:34.63.
With only three runners competing, the Griffin girls did not qualify a team score. SaKira Hayes ran the course in 28:45.07. Brittany Mack finished at 29:56.44, and Teairra McDuffie finished at 32:05.07.
Fairfield is slated to run again at Eau Claire on Tuesday, Oct. 24 for the Region 4 2A Championship.