BLYTHEWOOD – For the past four years, no 5A Division I school has mustered a girls track and field team to match up with Blythewood’s.
The Bengals made that fact plainly evident when they closed out their fourth straight state championship with a first-place 125 points in the 5A Division 1 meet at Spring Valley’s Harry Parone Stadium Thursday.
Blythewood’s point total was 50 points more than runner-up Dorman’s 75 points. The rest of the field totaled no more than 60 points.
“It means a lot,” Blythewood girls head coach Aleshia Hawkins said. “It just shows that we never back down. Even after the first one we just kept going and we let our younger ones lead the way and they just kept going.”
Bengals senior Hayley Hightower, who heads to Purdue with a track scholarship in the fall, and her sister Peyton, both earned individual gold medals, with Peyton winning the 400-meter dash with a time of 53.32 seconds and Hayley taking gold in the 800 with a time of 2:13.66.
Peyton Hightower was part of the 4×100 team with Jordan Balance, Alexandra Francique and Brooke Bramlett that took first place with a time of 46.35 seconds. She also ran a leg in the 4×400 team that took gold with a time of 3:49.92 and included Hayley Hightower, Francique and Cailyn Dawson.
“It was really fun,” said Hayley Hightower, who has been a point guard on the Blythewood girls basketball team for the past four years and played a big role in the team’s back-to-back state championships in 2025 and 2026. “Yes this is the last time I’ll be competing with my sister but we still have a bunch of our journey left for track. While I’m sad, I’m also excited for us and excited for the next journey and up and coming seasons.”
Peyton Hightower, a junior who has gotten interest from several NCAA Division I schools including Georgia and Miami, said the same.
“This journey has been really amazing,” she said. “I’m just blessed to share it with my sister and to run with the same team. I really love her and I’m super proud to have her leave as state champion.”
With golds in four events that gave the Bengals 40 points, Blythewood got the rest of its points by stacking up high placings in other events.
“I said this last year and I’ll say it again, we have so many people and so many young people,” Peyton Hightower said. “We have depth in each event and that’s what makes us so successful.”
Senior Olivia Taylor finished fifth in the 100-meter, with Francique taking seventh in the event. Taylor also placed fourth in the 200-meter dash, with Francique coming in at fifth and Peyton Hightower placing sixth. Those finishes netted the Bengals 19 points.
Behind Peyton Hightower in the 400-meter dash was Taylor in third for six points and Dawson in eighth for another point.
In the 100 hurdles Bramlett took second, Gabrielle Cherry took third, and Romelle Garway took fourth for a total of 19 points in the event.
Anna Kelly finished fifth in the 3200 run for four points, and Madison Ross took fifth in the 400 hurdles for four points as well.
The Blythewood 4×800 team of Hayley Hightower, Anna Kelly, Scarlett Baker and Paige Kelly placed third for six points.
In field events Alexis Jones took second in the long jump and third in the high jump or a total of 14 points. Khloe Williams took sixth and Ballance took eighth in the long jump to give Blythewood four more points. Romell Garway’s second place finish in the triple jump gave the Bengals another eight points.
Hayley Hightower and several other seniors leave the team behind after this year, but plenty of rising seniors and a load of younger athletes will return for another shot at a state championship.
“Our girls are real committed,” Hawkins said. “The goal is to just always give something to our young girls to look up to and so, with the older girls and mid-age girls, they just keep coming.
“They never let the pressure get to them,” Hawkins added about her girls. “They understood the mission and kept the mission going. They all get along and all root for each other. Even in practices they’re all pushing each other and they don’t let each other back down.”
In the boys events, Wando won with 84 points to runner-up Ridge View’s 78 points. The Bengals finished 9th with 38 points.
The boys 4×400 team of Rodney Little, Solomon Cobbs, Marlon Glover, Larry Davis finished second behind Ridge View with a time of 3:18.43.
Jacob Powell finished second in the 1600 and 3200 runs, posting times of 4:15.08 in the 1600 and 9:24.39 in the 3200.
Davis finished second in the 400 dash and Cobbs finished sixth in the 200 dash. Elijah Major finished sixth in the high jump.