Taco Bell Classic at Spring Valley will feature 228 high school track teams

When entries closed Tuesday night for the Taco Bell Classic Track and Field Inviational, John Jones did not know what to expect. On Wednesday, the Spring Valley coach learned his Vikings would be hosting 228 teams and more than 2,500 athletes in the elite annual competition, which begins Friday and runs all day Saturday.

“It’s just exploded,” Jones said. “Last year was our biggest meet ever with 156 teams. And we just blew way past that.”

Because they do not get the final entry figures until three days before the meet begins, Jones and his staff did not have much time to adapt to the enormity of it.

“Everybody just knows how big it is, everybody’s going to be on their best performance, and we’re just going to be moving kids all the time. There’s not going to be a lot of time for standing around, talking,” Jones said. “It’s going to be like a three-ring circus.”

The Taco Bell will feature national elite talent in nearly every event, keeping the infield bustling from the jump pits to the vault area.

“There are kids in the top 5 ranked nationally all over the place. It’s going to be, probably, the best meet we’ve ever had,” Jones said.

The 23-year-old meet grows in size and prestige as former competitors continue their success, Jones said.

Several of last year’s competitors went on to win NCAA indoor track and field championships in 2014, including Raven Saunders, who set a national shot put record at last year’s Taco Bell with her 56-foot, 8.25-inch throw.

“The more people see the times and the performances of the kids that come here, kids want to come. They want to come to a meet where they can watch great races and run great races,” he said.

For local athletes such as Heathwood Hall’s Sydney Ellen – who leads the state with her 5:09.62 time in the 3,200-meters – it’s a chance to match wits with the best runners.

“South Carolina always has some kids that stand up well to this kind of competition. We don’t have nearly as many athletes as some of the other states, like Georgia and North Carolina, but we’ve got some kids that are going to represent the state very well,” Jones said.

One of the meet’s more staunch competitions will be the boys’ 100 and 200 sprints. Each event has more than a dozen preliminary heats, but Ryan Clark, of Georgia’s Banneker, Darryl Haraway of Maryland’s DeMatha Catholic and Cravont Charleston, of Mallard Creek in Charlotte, are expected to go toe-to-toe in the Saturday afternoon finals. Haraway holds a 10.20-second seed time in the 100, which would best the meet record by one-hundredth of a second; Clark’s is 10.38 and Charleston’s is 10.57.

Among the Palmetto State athletes who could challenge those frontrunners are Spartanburg’s Tavien Feaster, who leads the state with 10.69 and 22.0 times in the 100 and 200, respectively, along with Lower Richland’s Ronald Fuller and Dutch Fork’s Austin Connor.

Competition begins at 5:45 p.m. Friday at Spring Valley with the junior varsity mile races. Varsity competition begins with the 6 p.m. girls and boys high jump finals. Trials for the 200 and the 3,200 relay finals will be held on Friday. The meet picks back up at 9 a.m. on Saturday, with the triple jump and girls 3,200 finals.

This story was originally published April 9, 2015 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Taco Bell Classic at Spring Valley will feature 228 high school track teams."