Lady Flashes take 11th state trophy

Lady Flashes team 2008 State Champions

By: | SCNow
Published: May 14, 2008

COLUMBIA — A familiar team stood on the highest step of the podium Saturday after the Class A girls state track meet at Spring Valley High School.
Just as familiar was the team standing in the second-place spot.
Johnsonville’s girls won their 11th state title in a meet that came down to the day’s final race, the 4x400-meter relay.
A third-place finish by the Flashes in that race gave them enough to edge Lamar 82.5-80.
It certainly wasn’t an unfamiliar scene for coach Steve Phillips — he’s been the Flashes’ coach for all 11 titles.
And Lamar has been one of his most familiar foes.
During Johnsonville’s run of seven straight championships from 1997-2003, the Silver Foxes, the ’04 and ’07 state champions, finished second four times in a row from 2000-03.
Saturday’s victory, Phillips said, was more gratifying than any he could think of.
A disciplinary incident at mid-season left the Flashes short-handed, but it didn’t slow them down.
They went on to claim their 24th straight region championship before capping the season with Saturday’s victory.
And not much was easy about Saturday’s chain of events either, Phillips said.
Johnsonville led Lamar 76.5-70 going into the 4x400-meter relay at the end of the day.
The Flashes’ lead leg runner, Latima Hanna, succumbed to fatigue and cramps just before the race and couldn’t run.
Phillips subbed in seventh-grader Tavona McCray and Johnsonville finished third. Lamar won the event and got 10 points, but the Flashes’ finish gave them six points, just enough to keep them on top.
“This year’s team didn’t want to be denied,” Phillips said. “They weren’t going to be denied. They had some outside motivation that made them want to go out and win. It was just special.”
Some of that motivation, Phillips said, stemmed from last season, when the Flashes finished third behind champion Lamar and runner-up Allendale-Fairfax.
In 10 seasons prior to that one, Johnsonville had come home either with a championship or a runner-up trophy.
Phillips credited a group of seniors that just didn’t want that to happen again.
One of those seniors, Tia Singletary, won the long jump and high jump.
“These girls try to keep things alive,” he said. “And they didn’t let anybody down. They just made themselves better.”

Lady Flashes take 11th state trophy

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