By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Burlington Christian Academy’s girls’ track and field team won a North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association team state championship amid a busy stretch of action for the Royals in various sports last week.
BCA also captured the boys’ tennis dual team state title.
Here’s a breakdown of NCISAA finals involving BCA:
Girls’ track and field
BCA, using strong distance running and splendid work in relays, tallied 177½ points to finish ahead of runner-up Hickory Christian’s 159 in the Division III girls’ track and field Friday at Wingate University.
Mary Katherine Par-ham won the 800 meters in 2 minutes, 24.19 seconds and the 1,600 in 5:23.06. Blakely Bork won the 3,200 in 11:18.26 and ended third in the 1,600 in 5:28.23.
Parham also placed third in the 400 (1:00.15).
Kelsey King was the shot put champion at 32-1½. Isabella Garner’s 81-4 ½ throw in the discus gave her third place with teammates Kelsy King (77-2) and Anna Grace Newbauer (76-7) in the next two spots.
BCA’s 400 relay of Emma Sweeney, Zoie Johnson, Adalynn House, and Ellie Mundy won in 52:97. The Royals with Reagan Craig, Johnson, Sweeney, and Anna Wilson won the 800 relay in 1:50.96. The 3,200 relay of Hazel Kleiman, Sarah Chambers, Carly Gresham, and House prevailed in 10:46.35.
BCA’s 1,600 relay was runner up with Ellianna Bork, Maggie Dudley, Craig, and Parham in 4:28.22.
Other strong finishes came from Mundy in second in the 100 (12.75) and Wilson in third in both the 100 hurdles (17.38) and 300 hurdles (51.37).
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Boys’ track and field
BCA placed third with 92 points behind Fayetteville Academy (122) and Caldwell Academy (105).
BCA’s Josiah Horn won the shot put (44-5½) and discus (148-8½), with teammate Brian Fla-herty the runner-up in the discus (135-3¼)
Micah Stewart was the runner-up in the long jump (21-1). Colin Godwin was the runner-up in the 300 hurdles (42.33). Manny Vanhook took second in the high jump (6-4)
Ryan Stallings was third in the pole vault (7-8). The third-place 400 relay (45.10) was comprised of Godwin, Caleb Taylor, Vanhook and Stewart.
Boys’ tennis
Connor Pherson rallied in a tiebreaker for seven consecutive points as BCA claimed the Division III state championship by defeating top-seeded Wayne Country Day School 5-4 on Saturday at North Carolina Wesleyan in Rocky Mount.
Pherson trailed 9-4 before claiming the tiebreaker 11-9 in what was a 6-2, 5-7 (11-9) victory against John Wahl at No. 3 singles.
The third-seeded Royals (17-3) also received singles victory from Nathan Clark at No. 1, Nathan Garrigan at No. 5, and Clayton Knavel at No. 6. Clark won a third-set tiebreaker 10-8 vs. Battle Hine.
BCA’s other point came from Luke Williams and Garrigan at No. 3 doubles.
Baseball
BCA fell in the best-of-3 Class 2-A state final to Faith Christian School of Rocky Mount, losing 9-2 on Friday night and 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at McCrary Park in Asheboro.
Losing pitcher Cooper Kelly had three hits and drove in a run for the Royals (13-12) on the first night. Cohen Payne had two of BCA’s three hits in Game 2, while Patrick Triolo took the loss.
Faith Christian School ended with a 22-5 record.
Girls’ soccer
Caldwell Academy scored the game’s two second-half goals in a 3-1 victory against BCA in Saturday’s Class 2-A state final in Rocky Mount.
House, a day removed from the state track and field championships, scored BCA’s goal in the first half on an assist from Carli McNeilus.
The Royals finished the season with a 14-4-2 record.
Kaylie Kocher had two goals for Caldwell Academy (13-4).
Boys’ golf
Senior Kenan Kim tied for third place in the Class 2-A state tournament last week at Jamestown Park Golf Club.
Kim’s two-round total of 8-over-par 152 was four shots behind The O’Neal School’s Samaur Sandhu and Luke Valkovics, who both finished at 148.
BCA was the runner-up in the team standings with 488, well behind champion Wayne Country Day School’s 455.
