GREENVILLE &045; It could have been a total downer of a week for Wilkinson Christian.

The baseball team got bounced in the second round of the playoffs, high jumper extraordinaire Brad Pritchard didn’t get a state championship on Friday and the entire team was facing a University Christian School team that edged them out for the South State title last week.

But through the rain on Saturday at the MPSA state meet, the Rams found a ray of light. Standing in Lane 4 soaking wet but smiling was WCCA head coach Paul Hayles with a Class A state title, the school’s first since a Class AA title back in 1997.

The Rams won it with 89 points. UCS finished in second with 81, and East Holmes was third with 80.

&uot;The kids did a super job,&uot; Hayles said. &uot;They worked their tails off, and they did this in the middle of the state baseball playoffs. After coming up short at South State and winning the state title, you can’t say enough about that. There are a lot of excited fans here. We’ve got a tremendous group of people up here. You wouldn’t believe it.&uot;

The team was able to muscle into the lead with a couple of first-place finishes &045; Pritchard won the 110 hurdles in 16.1 seconds, a time that was the best among all classes on Saturday, and Travis Allen won the 800 in 2:10.

Pritchard, who jumped 6-5 in the high jump on Friday to finish second but won the triple jump at 41-9, got his third medal and second first-place medal. He was less than a second off the Class A record of 15.19 set in 2001 by Josh Barnes of River Oaks.

&uot;Through six hurdles, he was in fourth place,&uot; Hayles said. &uot;Once he cleared that sixth hurdle, he got a little separation. He was right behind the kid he tripped with at South State, and he had that on his mind. Tunica moved up into second (in that race), and UCS fell into third. We felt like Brad would do what he did, but we didn’t know about the Tunica kid. That was an upset.&uot;

The race with Allen in the 800 was a momentum-turner for the Rams. Allen finished third 0in the 800 at South State, but on Saturday he won it in an undisclosed time. Allen also finished sixth in the 100.

&uot;The kid from UCS and River Oaks beat him last week, but Travis didn’t have his best time,&uot; Hayles said. &uot;It was a big win. We developed a strategy for the race, and Travis ran it to perfection. Travis flanked the UCS kid the whole way, and in the final curve he turned it on and beat them both by five or six steps.&uot;

That put the Rams in solid standing heading into the final races, and they went third, third, second and fourth in the relays. The 400 relay of Randy Harris, Byron Peterson, Duston Dor and Allen finished third, the 800 relay of Harris, Pritchard, Dor and Allen finished third, the 3,200 relay of William Benton, Trenton Nettles, Greg Garner and Brad Pritchard took second and the mile relay of Allen, Eli Ashley, Spike Deville and Pritchard came in fourth.

When it came down to that mile relay, the Rams were in good shape. It came down to the 3,200 race before the meet-ending mile relay, and the Rams had a 12-point lead heading into that race.

&uot;We had to see where UCS placed in the two-mile,&uot; Hayles said. &uot;Their kid got sixth place, and we knew all we had to do was finish the mile relay. UCS had to beat East Holmes to get second, which they did. They had a tremendous race.&uot;

In other results, Trinity Episcopal’s Nason Stephens finished his season with a clean sweep of the 100, 200 and 400 by winning each race. He ran the 100 in 11.53 seconds, the 200 in 22.96 seconds and the 400 in an impressive 51.23 seconds.

It marked the end of Stephens’ career in the MPSA ranks, as the sophomore was accepted at Mississippi School for the Arts. He ended the season undefeated in each of the events.

&uot;It was a lot better than normal,&uot; Stephens said of the 400. &uot;This was the state meet, and you’ve got to push it as hard as you can. It wasn’t my fastest time, but it was a great way to finish out. I had a great time running.&uot;

The biggest win for the three-event standout was the 100 since he came in ranked No. 2. Buster Lacey of East Holmes Academy won the North title last week in a time of 11.39 seconds, and Stephens’ time last week at South State was 11.43 seconds.

But when the two met up Saturday, Stephens beat him by a second.

&uot;I took a look at the guy, and he looked pretty strong,&uot; Stephens said. &uot;He looked like he was in good shape, and I was a little nervous. But he was a little shorter than I was, and I guess I got him with my legs.&uot;

The Saints also had two place in the mile &045; Austin Green in third and Wesley Davis in fourth with Green finishing just under the 5:00 and Davis just above it.

In other results, the Huntington Hounds got two fifth-places finishes on Saturday from Chad Kenney in the 300 hurdles as he finished in 44.3 seconds and the mile relay team of Micah Collard, Hunter Norwood, Chad Kenney and Adam Trevillion in 3:49.

The best place of the weekend for Huntington came in the field events on Friday when Trevillion finished fourth in the high jump at 6-1. Travis Jordan was fifth in the discus at 113-10.

&uot;We performed well,&uot; Huntington head coach Bo Swilley said. &uot;When you get to the state and finish in the top five, that’s pretty solid. They fought rain all weekend. That relay team was three sophomores and a senior. I think we’ve got a good core of kids coming back next year. I’m really proud of them. They worked real hard. They competed well all year.&uot;