S.C. leaves its mark at Taco Bell Classic high school track meet

Saturday’s Taco Bell Classic track and field meet at Spring Valley saw several outstanding performances from South Carolina athletes.

The meet featured over 2,500 athletes from 228 schools across the East Coast, and some of the Palmetto State’s finest distinguished themselves amongst that competition.

White Knoll’s Bryan Grumbach was the Midland’s top local finisher, placing fourth in the boys 800 at 1:57.98.

“This is a huge meet with tremendous competition, so it definitely gives me confidence going back into state competition,” said Grumbach, who also finished fifth in the 1600.

In the girls’ race, Daniel’s Laurie Barton put herself among national elite performers in the 800 at 2:10.79. That time is the sixth-best in the nation.

Barton, who ran the 400 and 800 at the 2014 state championships, said it was her goal to beat her personal best time, 2:18, and qualify for nationals.

“I was so nervous,” Barton said. “I was just panicking and I just wanted to get it over with. For the last few years I’ve been running the 400, so running the 800 is scary because I don’t know how much I have after 400.”

Barton moved from third to first after the sixth turn.

“After the 400, I felt like I still had a lot left, so I just hit it,” Barton said.

The best local performances were from the Westwood girls 1600 relay team (4:35.55) in sixth; the Dutch Fork girls 400 relay (48.65) in sixth; Spring Valley’s Kennay Agnew, who was sixth in the girls 400, and Austin Connor of Dutch Fork, who took fifth in the 100.

The meet’s highest distinctions went to Georgia athletes Candace Hill (Rockdale County) and Ryan Clark (Banneker). They each swept their respective 100 and 200 dashes.

This story was originally published April 11, 2015 at 9:45 PM with the headline "S.C. leaves its mark at Taco Bell Classic high school track meet."