Hilton Head Prep, Cross Schools take home SCISA cross country titles

Hilton Head Prep and Cross Schools won SC Independent Schools Association cross country championships on Saturday in Columbia.

HHP girls won the SCISA 3A championship, while Cross swept the 2A championships.

Hilton Head Prep finished with 58 points, six more than second-place Spartanburg Christian.

Sarah Elizabeth Phillips(19:34) led the way for HHP with a runner-up finish. Maya Biles (20:57) was fifth and sixth grader Georgie Bateman (21:20) was seventh.

Cross, which was runner-up last year in both, swept the championships this year.

The girls finished with 38 points, five more than Our Lady of the Rosary. Effie Hendry (19:33) led Cross with a first-place finish for second straight individual championship. Milly Hendry came in third, while Elizabeth Von Maur was 10th and Maggie Drury 11th.

The Cross boys finished with 29 points to edge Charleston Collegiate. Jackson Welter led Cross with a second-place finish and was followed by Chase McDaniel (4th), Noah Hodgon (5th), Owen Nemes (8th), Josiah Riddle (10th) and Shiloh Hunter-Daniel (11th).

Holy Trinity was fifth and Beaufort Academy sixth.

In 3A boys, Hilton Head Prep finished fourth. HHP’s Jonathan DeMaria was eighth to earn all-state honors. Jack White was 13th and Colin Gilbert was 16th.

The John Paul II boys finished second in the SCISA 4A championship for the second straight yar. Three JPII runners finished in the top-10: Blake Hubik (6th), Matthew Yanachik (8th) and Brayden Frickel (9th)

In 4A girls, John Paul II finished 11th.