The Grind, presented by Bank of Clarendon: How competitiveness and family fuel Wilson Hall's wild XC success

Over the last half-decade, the cross country program at Wilson Hall has evolved.

In 2022, Connor Smith was a bit of a one-man show for the Barons, winning an individual state title as Wilson Hall finished third as a team. It was an incredible milestone.

That team featured a pair of eighth-graders, Caulder Williamson and Abel Ayres, who both finished just outside the top 10. Now, those eighth-graders are getting ready to graduate, and they've helped build the Wilson Hall program into not just a SCISA powerhouse, but into a team that is pushing some of the top SCHSL programs, too. The Barons have won three consecutive SCISA 4A titles, with their margin of victory growing every season.

The secret to their success?

"I can be honest, most of these guys, if we did not have as much fun hanging out with each other, we would not be as good," Abel said. "We probably would not still be running this well because it's the team aspect that really got us across and kept us coming back day after day."

Caulder added, "We've been building and building, and our friendships have been growing and growing. I think we have the team aspect (of) being like a family, as well as competing with each other every day at practice."

PLANTING SEEDS

Caulder and Abel laid the foundation for the current state of the program in their eighth-grade seasons and took a step forward as freshmen. Caulder finished sixth at the state meet in 16:46.48, while Abel finished ninth in 16:58.40. That season also started to bring in some reinforcements, as Cordin Finley finished 23rd and an eighth-grader, while fellow eighth-grader Aiden Bradford took a step to finish 45th.

That was seen as a rebuild year for Wilson Hall, as they finished fourth as a team, but it helped lay the groundwork for what was to come.

"Me and Caulder, we learned a lot from him and learned a lot from that team. I think that year, specifically, our eighth-grade year, was really good for us. In our freshman year, going into that rebuild, we could try to get more guys, like these dual-sport athletes, and we knew what was kind of expected to win a state championship because we saw it from Connor," Abel said. "And then obviously, as we started building that culture and knowing how to do it, we get all these guys, and then our sophomore year, when we won the first one, it was kind of like, we did all that, that was two years of real preparation straight, 365 days a year, to really get into it, and that was the culmination of that."

The team continued to fill out as Wilson Hall started their run of consecutive titles in 2024. Caulder broke Connor's school record as he finished second as an individual with a time of 15:49.08. Trip Hunt joined the team as a freshman and finished eighth at state with a time of 16:37.45. Abel remained consistent in 11th, and the Barons got another addition in Gavin Getz, who finished 33rd.

"I came in (my) ninth grade year and started running, just moved here from the military, and I was scared because I heard that Caulder Williamson ran a 16:36 and I only ran like a 19, so I was like, 'Yeah, I'm about to get whooped.' So, I did get whooped first year," Trip said. "And then, it's the culture. We just push each other so much. I come in and I become one of the top guys because we push each other. Abel and Caulder sustain their positions as the top guys because they push each other. I think that's the reason we keep winning, because no one's falling behind. We're all just keeping up with each other, and it's really fun to see."

Wilson Hall head coach Reid Schwartz wants to push his athletes to improve every day, but he also knows that the constant grind of running mile after mile can be draining if you don't find a way to keep things entertaining. That balance helps Wilson Hall continue to push forward.

"I think the culture is finding the right mix between keeping it light and keeping it fun, but also knowing the work that you have to get done and being able to actually do the work," he said. "It can't be all social, but it can't be all hard work and no fun."

CONSTANT COMPETITION

In the span of one year, Wilson Hall's program grew by leaps and bounds. The 2024 team beat John Paul II by just one point, winning the title on the back of their depth. In 2025, it was pure dominance.

The Barons won their second straight title by a full 31 points over John Paul II. Trip blossomed into a superstar, setting a new school record as he won the individual state title in 15:26.20, beating the defending state champ, Jack Wilcox of Heathwood Hall, by about eight seconds. Caulder and Abel were close behind, placing third and fourth, respectively. Caulder beat his previous record time by crossing in 15:45.97, while Abel finished in 16:05.45. Gavin finished 10th in 16:22.59, followed by outgoing senior Ben Rabon in 13th and Cordin, who returned after electing not to run as a freshman, in 14th. Aiden continued his rise by placing 18th. All seven of Wilson Hall's runners placed in the top 20 and the scoring lineup averaged a time of 16:02, shattering the previous year's mark by more than 50 seconds.

While Wilson Hall certainly got some reinforcements, their team success was built on every single runner getting better.

"For me, it was honestly really about that growth because my eighth-grade year when I started, I didn't make regionals. But developing alongside my friends and everything, to making state and mattering in the first year when we won the state championship," Gavin said. "My ninth-grade year, I finished fifth on the team, and just me counting points and winning with my best friends was such a great feeling, and it happened again last year and this year. It's so amazing, and I can't even imagine running without Caulder and Abel. It really truly is a family."

Each of those Barons improved because they push each other every single day.

"We just push each other, and as one person gets better, the person behind him doesn't want to get left behind, so then he pushes harder," Trip said. "I was scared my freshman year. I just wanted to improve. I didn't have a lot of pressure on me because I wasn't very relevant at that point. I ran pretty well at state and I got third on the team, and that winter, I just wanted to be better. And so, I trained that winter and that track season and then that summer, and I was like, 'I really want to beat Caulder.'

"I trained so hard and I was so disciplined, and I think it just comes down to (the fact that) you can have all the answers but if you don't implement them, and if you know what the right workout is but then you don't do it, it's not going to really matter. And if you do it once a week and you don't do it every single day, you've just got to be consistent, you've got to be disciplined and the results will just show up. They might not show up immediately and they might take like a really long time, and it may just suck in the moment, but if you just keep at it, your times just will go down over time."

That pushing has paid off. Wilson Hall ran in the SCISA 4A state championships on Halloween and continued to find new heights. Trip claimed his second consecutive state title, running away from the pack by more than 12 seconds as he crossed in 15:00.24. Ben Lippen's Liam Thompson finished second before a pair of Barons. Newcomer Cole Henson took third in 15:25.52, while Gavin finished fourth in 15:44.16. Caulder finished eighth, Aiden took 11th and Cordin placed 12th. Abel rounded out the team in 15th with a time of 16:36.18, a time that would've earned him a top-five finish at the '23 state meet his freshman year.

If you track the times of Wilson Hall's top runner over the years, it's impossible to miss just how fast they've gotten. Connor won an individual state title in 15:52.54. During the Starlight Invitational this fall, which is primarily run on a track, Trip beat that time by more than a minute. Running on the same course, Trip still beat that original mark by 52.30 seconds. And the rest of the Barons followed suit.

"It's kind of funny because Coach Kristine (Smith), his mom, said when he won after the meet that day, she was like, 'It's really not even that impressive. 15:50 is really not impressive.' And right before we came in here, we were just talking about how he wouldn't even be top five on our team this year," Caulder said. "And so, it really is incredible how much we've grown from that like three, four years ago to what we are now."

Throughout the race, their individual competitiveness shined, but their coaches showed the same fire.

"It's not just a competitive atmosphere among us runners, it's with the coaches, too. Flashback to that race, I can remember in the last 400, I'm in that number five spot. Jack Wilcox, I've always heard about him, he's considered the best - a couple years ago, he was the best - and he's right in front of me. And I see Coach Reid (in my) peripheral vision, 'You've got to get this spot. He's slowing down. He does not want it. He does not want it. You can beat him. That's a D1 commit right there. Catch him,'" Gavin said. "And just with that encouragement, knowing that Coach Reid wanted it just as much as I did, helped me push him, and that feeling of being able to pass Jack in the last 200 is just incomparable."

But there was also a senior in the back of the Wilson Hall pack who showcased his love for his teammates. Abel could tell that he didn't have the legs to run his best race at state, so he turned his attention to pulling for his teammates, instead.

"During the race, I was with Abel. I see him in front of me, catch up to him, and I thought we were running at a pretty good pace. And he's just giving me encouragement throughout the whole race; I don't know how he can do it. I'm out of breath; he's not somehow," Cordin said. "I go a little faster, I push it, and I hear him behind me, 'Let's go, Bradford.' And I'm like, 'Wow, Aiden is close.' Maybe two, three minutes later, he just goes flying right past me, and I was really proud of him. I like seeing everyone improve. I see Gavin PRing, Aiden PRing, and once I crossed that finish line, I went right up to Aiden, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, how much did you just PR by?' And I knew right when I crossed that finish line, we were all in top 15, we won it, and it was just a sense of relief from the whole season, and I was just so proud of everyone."

After an outstanding high school cross country career, Abel thought it was more important to be a supportive teammate in his final race than to shave a couple of seconds off his final time.

"I mean, I think my coach would have rather I stayed quiet and kept going, but I had been able to complete the goal that I've always wanted to complete, so this meet, for me, was kind of just like one last run at it," Abel said. "And honestly, I wanted to go fast. I went out like I wanted to keep up with Caulder and then, but when my legs didn't have it, I decided it was more important for me to be able to get these guys to go up.

"At the end of the day, I've done everything I've wanted to do, I've seen this team grow, and so I want them to be able to surpass me and be able to do all the things that I couldn't do and be able to go and reach higher because I know they can. And so I want just to be able to show them that they can because I've always been a little bit ahead of them, but if they can really pass me, then they can do it, and sky's the limit."

A third consecutive state title was the perfect way for two seniors to close their historic careers with the program, regardless of where they finished as individuals.

"The job is finished now," Caulder said. "Before, we were saying the job's not finished, but it's done now, there's nothing else we can do, and it's very satisfying."

"I was very emotional on Saturday because it's the last one, so I thought being able to celebrate on the field while they play 'We are the Champions,' and just being able to sing along, be able to have fun. It's kind of like my, like, relaxation moment," Abel added. "It's like, OK, I've done all the work, and now I can just revel in this moment and be able to enjoy this without having to think about what I'm eating or what workout I'm going to do tomorrow. I kind of just relax and be like, 'We finally did it.'"

FAMILY FIRST

One constant thread with the Wilson Hall cross country team is their love for one another. Yes, they want to beat each other in every race they run together, but that competitiveness doesn't come with a lick of animosity. The best example of that comes from their two seniors.

It would've been easy for their mainstays, Caulder and Abel, to get frustrated as the younger athletes started passing them. But that didn't happen. Instead, it pushed them to want to improve and celebrate the success of their teammates.

"Both Caulder and Abel are true team players; they've never put themselves before the team," Reid said. "They always want what's in the best interest of the team, and if that means that Trip overtakes the No. 1 spot on the team and that brings the boat up, then so be it. I've never once questioned if they would rather win a race and the team get second as opposed to getting fifth or sixth and the team wins. They always put the team first."

The pride they have for each other is evident.

"I've got to give all the credit to Abel. I think he has put this team exactly where it needs to be to continue growing for the next four or five years, honestly. We've got the guys to do it, and I just want to give him credit for that," Caulder said. "Ever since that state meet two years ago, Trip's just been killing it. I think he got that little sniff of blood, and now all he can do is just win. He just started working so hard, and he is where he is now."

The atmosphere around the team has also made it much easier to put in the grueling hours required to shed time at the rate Wilson Hall has over the past four years.

"It's not just during the meets but also at practice. Having people run the workouts with you and know that you're not the only one out there suffering day in and day out to get out there and run those times, but you have everybody at every practice to go out there and push their hardest every workout," Cole said. "You would come across the line and lay down on the ground just absolutely gassed, but it wasn't just you, it was like the entire team. Everybody gave it everything they had in the workouts, so it's no surprise that if you give everything you have, when you get time to the meet and have to go out there and show everybody what you've built up, it's going to come pretty easy."

Gavin added, "If it's only about you, I've never really understood the appeal. I'm never running just for me. I personally hate running; I don't like it one bit. But when I'm running for my team, when I'm running for my coaches, it's that sense of me not only wanting to be better for myself, but for everyone else just really makes it what I like to do."

COACHING

Each of the Barons was also quick to give credit to a spectacular coaching staff. Alongside Reid, Dustin and Kristine Smith have been staples for the program for years. Dustin, who also took over as the head cross country coach at USC Sumter this year, is in charge of building their workout regimen, which has evolved over the years as the team continues to improve.

"I also want to give a lot of credit to the coaches with that because I think they did a great job preparing us, teaching us like humility and all that," Caulder said. "Without our coaches putting us where they knew we needed to be, none of this would ever be possible. They are so beyond the high school level. They could be coaching anywhere in college they wanted to, in my opinion. And I think they've just done a great job my five years. And if they keep coaching, it's going to be hard to beat us."

Abel added, "I'm going to give a shout out to Coach D, our mad scientist. All of those other six days of the week, he has spent hours and hours planning the perfect workouts. So, you come in on Monday, you've got the perfect thing, and then he's like, 'This doesn't end here, you have to go home and recover, eat this, or you have to recover this way to get ready for the next one because it never stops.' Even when you're not running, you're doing something to recover and get better, so that way you can come back the next day and put in as much effort as you need to get better. He really has helped us over the years, and he has grown even with me and Caulder. I've seen workouts evolve and being able to just keep us getting better, even when we're exceeding expectations."

CONTINUING TO GROW

Now, the challenge for Wilson Hall is finding the next goal. The Barons have dominated SCISA for the last couple of years, but they don't want to settle for being the top team in SCISA.

"It's Lexington, JL Mann, Mauldin. Those three, man, we want to take them down. And we're losing a couple of our top runners, which is super unfortunate, because I really would love a whole other year to train with these two and go out and run another state meet and go even faster," Trip said. "But we've got five of our guys here running again next year. That'll be our new top five, unless Cooper Melton's got something to say. We really want to win SCISA, but we just want to keep growing as a team; none of us want to get left behind or anything, because if one of us steps off the gas, then the rest of us are just going to keep going, and then that person gets lost, and we don't want that to happen. We want this five to stay as tight as we can get them and far forward as we can get them, so we're competing in the state level again next year. And then, hopefully, we can cultivate that culture and maybe keep the team going after all seven of us leave and just get these guys to want to run, want to win these state championships, want to carry on the legacy we kind of set behind. It's just exciting, the future."

Aiden added, "I would argue we're looking past just the state of South Carolina; we're looking at the Southeast. I looked this up, we're faster than 10 or so states as a team. Caulder and Abel have planted this like crazy ambition in this team and you look at our track record, we've hit these goals. Our goal is to keep this going; there's always another goal to chase."

While reaching new heights will be difficult to achieve without their outgoing seniors, Reid is confident his program will continue to grow because of the culture that duo helped establish.

"I think losing Caulder and Abel, who I know are going to run in the 15's and 16's for me, so from a pure talent perspective, is going to be a tough loss, but both of those guys were really glue guys who kept the team together and contributed a lot to that culture and camaraderie within the team. I think the loss goes beyond the fact that these guys are really good runners and posted really good times," the head coach said. "At the same time, I feel really good about what's behind them in that junior class. From our top seven at state who all finished in the top 15, five of those were juniors. With cross country, of course, you're scoring the top five, so we should be good next year, but we've got to continue to put in that work and continue to work hard.

"Being so good over the last few years also kind of overshadows some of your sophomores and freshmen and eighth -raders and sixth- and seventh-graders. We've got a lot kind of hanging in the back there who are ready to show what they can do at the varsity level. I'm really excited that kids like Wil Alexander, who's a freshman, Cooper Melton, who's a freshman, Bennett Blalock, who's a freshman, Cameron Trueblood and Aiden Webb, they're now going to have that opportunity to step up, and that's exactly what we'll need them to do."