It was a short first day at the state track meet, but with South Carolina's best high school athletes gathering in one place, there's no shortage of blogging material.
Travailing the Spring Valley High School campus was an adventure in itself. From its pristine baseball field to the rock climbing wall to a football stadium that is probably just as big as the one at Duke University (seriously) to the various academic buildings (and that's not to mention whatever will be added once the school's renovation is complete), I'm sure it was a no-brainer in deciding where to hold the state meet.
Battery Creek and Beaufort High athletes competed in three different events Friday, starting with BC's 4x800 relay team.
According to the squad of Norman Jenkins, Chris Thomas, Brandon Francis and Marquis Brown, they didn't get there until 20-30 minutes before the race, making for a quick round of stretching and mental preparation.
But while they certainly pushed their hardest, tying their school record of 8 minutes, 27 seconds, you could tell they just didn't have the stamina of Wando and Spring Valley's runners, who finished one-two in the event.
But with Francis as the only senior in the group, I expect to see these guys back next year.
The triple jump that followed turned into the Devin Taylor show.
It really never gets old seeing this kid's unique athletic ability. With the way he's excelled in football, basketball and track at Beaufort High, he'd probably have a ball (no pun intended) if he went to Beaufort Academy and could play more than one sport per season.
The key to his dominance might be in the simple yet strange routine he did Friday.
In between each jump, Taylor would put back on the three layers of shirts and two layers of shorts that he warmed up in, only to take them off a few minutes later when it was time for him to jump again.
Five times he did this, choosing to keep his warm-up clothes on instead of leaping for his sixth attempt. And who could blame him since the competition had been decided long before that.
Taylor's "worst" jump of the day (his first at 47 feet, 1 inch) actually would have been enough to win the event, as South Pointe High School's Breon Jackson finished second with a jump of 46-10.
Taylor's best jump of the day came in at 48-3, making for a funny scene among his competitors, who threw up their hands and fell back in playful disgust at their superior opponent.
"I should've just stayed home," one said with a smile.
Even funnier was when BC's Jenkins climbed atop the first-place podium and looked around with pride as Taylor laughed from below.
"Man, get out of Devin's spot," another jumper said.
It was a fitting scene, being that Jenkins is a lock to make a run for that first-place spot over the next two years.
But it was a more fitting quote for Taylor, who's taken the state by storm across several playing fields and seemingly laid permanent claim to that number one spot.