The Grind, presented by Bank of Clarendon: Wilson Hall's Jones sets record after record during sensational senior season

If you look up at the record boards for the Wilson Hall cross country and track programs, you'll see one name far more often than the rest.

Molly Jones has been on a mission to claim as many of the program's top marks as she can this year, though she's breaking several of her own records in the process. Just this year, she's set new school records in the 400m dash, 400m hurdles, 800m, 1,600m and 3,200m runs. She's also on the record-setting relay teams in both the 4x400 and 4x800, breaking the 4x400 mark more than once. She picked up cross country again this fall and set new school records three times through the season.

Simply put, Molly has set the standard at Wilson Hall.

"In my opinion, I've only been here 10 years, but if you look at the record boards, she's going to go down as one of the most decorated runners in our track and field program," head track coach Rip Ripley said. "She's going to end up being a part of essentially seven or eight school records, which nobody has ever done. Showing that ability makes it less surprising that she can go out and beat her record every time."

BORN TO COMPETE

As a member of the Jones family, Molly was raised to compete.

Her grandfather, Wallie Jones, is in the University of South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame for his success with their baseball program and eventually led the Sumter P-15's to a mountain of success in American Legion ball. Molly's dad, Jay, has been a longtime baseball coach in Sumter at the youth level and at Wilson Hall. Both of her older brothers, Tyler and Dylan, were standouts on the diamond, track and gridiron. Molly was destined to set her own path.

"A lot of people would assume that I kind of have a big softball background since my family is so into baseball, but I did one year of PARD; did not like it," she said. "I've always been really competitive. I remember in PE when I was little, we'd all come out and race the mile, and that was my time to shine."

In a house with two older brothers relatively close in age, Molly was always competing.

"Now that they're graduated in college, we don't really have these arguments anymore, but I can remember like when I first started track it was always, 'Do you think you could beat them?'" Molly said. "And I think we kind of settled around like they could beat me in the sprints, and then I kind of got them in like an 800 or over."

Ripley has coached Molly in both volleyball and track throughout her career at Wilson Hall. He knew what to expect from the very beginning simply because of her last name, but Molly didn't plan on coasting just because people knew her family.

"A little part of that has to be chalked up to the DNA; the Jones family is one known for being pretty competitive in all that they do, and she definitely caught that bug. She wanted to be the best she can be," Rip said. "From an early age, it was obvious she was going to be one that was capable. With a lot of girls that age, it's always the question of are they going to put the work in? I think Molly has more than proven that she was more than willing to take on that workload. She really sets a good example for those around her."

While her family is most well-known for baseball, Molly had some runners to look up to in the family, too.

"My grandpa and my uncle Tom and uncle Rick were all big marathon runners, so I definitely have running in my genes, and I know there was kind of an expectation there because they were so good at it," she said. "I wanted to be like them, too."

Whenever Molly's in the thick of offseason training, her grandpa is always trying to find ways to help her find the drive to keep going.

"He really helps motivate me," Molly said. "Throughout the winter months, which is the hardest time to train because you're out here alone and it's 30 degrees, you want to be wrapped up in a blanket at home. I felt that many days but still got myself to come out here. He'd send me pretty motivational things and links to videos and everything to help keep me going."

The Jones family is also as supportive as they come. There aren't many sporting events at Wilson Hall that don't have at least one member of the family in attendance.

"I definitely feel it all now since I'm the baby of the Wally Jones family, since both of my cousins are off at Clemson and then both my brothers are off at Carolina. Even my aunt and uncle will be pretty supportive and keeping up with everything," Molly said. "Obviously, my parents wouldn't miss anything, neither would my grandparents. Since like most of all my family is from Sumter, a lot of my second cousins do track, too, so it's like my extended family's out here, too, which is kind of funny. I like having everyone out here."

That support means a lot of time in the car, too. This winter, Molly tried her hand at indoor track. There weren't many meets in South Carolina, so the Jones family loaded up the car and drove up to Winston-Salem to compete.

"We went up there two different weekends, and I did the 1,600 and was just an unattached athlete. We made the three-hour trip or however long it was, and I'm sure they weren't too thrilled about driving all that, but they did it with a smile on their face," Molly said. "They saw how exciting it was for me to reach those PRs, and I think that made it all worth it."

EARLY SUCCESS

Molly set a strong tone early, taking part in two different record-setting relays as an eighth-grader. She ran the first leg in the 4x400 with a team that included Gracyn Coker, Kaitlyn Smith and Emma Bradley. She then anchored the 4x800 team that set the school record during the state meet. Now a senior, Molly has a new perspective on how special it was to set new marks with that group of upperclassmen.

"It really wasn't that nerve-wracking for the 4x4 because I really didn't have that perspective," Molly said. "Gracyn and Kaitlyn were both seniors and I was in eighth grade, so I have so much time, but for them, now that I'm the senior and I'm in their shoes, like it's crunch time. I know how much pressure they probably felt; it's probably aggravating that I didn't seem that nervous. But I was really nervous for the 4x8 record because we had never run any time close to it. Coach Rip told us like a week before state like, 'Hey y'all really could like break this record. We have a good group of 800 runners, which is hard to come by.'"

Rip put her on those relay teams as an eighth-grader for one simple reason.

"In track, we have the benefit that the clock doesn't lie. She proved throughout that year that she was capable of those times, so a lot of times we give the benefit to the kid that can run it," he said. "With us all running together, she was able to get a taste of those varsity meets at an earlier age. It's not like she was a middle-schooler that was dominating middle school meets and didn't have the understanding of what it takes to compete at a high level. She was definitely ready for it."

That was just the start for Molly. She broke the 4x400 again during both her sophomore and junior seasons. The avalanche of records really started to flow during her junior season last spring after setting her first individual record, the 800m run. She followed that with the 400 hurdles record, capping off the season with the current 4x400 record at state.

"On March 23, I broke my first individual record. I broke the 800 record by like .1 over at Coaches Classic, and I think that really just served as a catalyst. It was really motivating to kind of feel that recognition. I think that's what took me to the next level," Molly said of her junior season. "I think I had a stronger approach at things in the 400 hurdles. I broke that record for the first time in late March, and then it was like every time I ran it, I just kept PRing. It was easy in hurdles to get that mindset because you can fix things like your form and stuff, and that'll help chop down some time, whereas you don't see that in like the 400 open."

SENIOR SUCCESS

After two years of just focusing on volleyball in the fall, Molly decided to give cross country another shot this season. What started as a way to stay in shape for track turned into another banner season for the senior.

"I remember after our track banquet, Coach Katherine Schwartz came up to me and was like, 'Hey, we need some more girls on the cross country team.' I was like, you know what, I'll just do cross country. It's my senior year, it'll be good to get me in shape for track, and I ended up really loving it and was running times I never thought I'd do," Molly said. "If you would've told me in May of last year, 'Yeah, you broke 19 in the 5K, I would've thought you were crazy. I kind of like I remember telling my dad I'm just doing it to get in shape, I mean I'd be fine with like 21 minutes or 20 minutes or something. After seeing that success with 18:47, I had to do the mile now, and I've even done the two mile a few times. I felt like I really had to get into distance and loved it."

Molly was committed to being successful from the jump. She immediately worked with the entire coaching staff, including Kristine and Dusty Smith, Shanna Thomas, head coach Reid Schwartz and his wife, Katherine, on finding the right routine. Molly was still playing volleyball, so she had to find a balance between keeping pace with the mileage of the rest of the team while still having the energy to compete on the court.

"We would adjust things slightly for her, so if she had multiple volleyball games or a tournament, she probably wasn't running the longer 6-7 mile run the others would on the weekend," Shanna said. "We'd tell her to rest and recover and try to get three or four miles instead. She was following the plan with the rest of the team, but we made some adjustments so we wouldn't overdo it for her."

The senior still got plenty of miles in while balancing her time between the two sports.

"I've always used Strava and stuff and have uploaded my runs there, but I never had a specific, 'OK, I'm gonna do this training plan, log this many miles a week.' My senior year (of) cross country is where that really started to kick in," Molly said. "I was doing about 25 miles a week, and that was on top of playing volleyball. In the offseason, I kind of built myself up, and now currently for track, I'm at about 30 miles per week, and everything's pretty like planned out to a T, which has helped."

Rip never took her work ethic for granted.

"It's a tough double," Rip said of playing two sports in the same season. "We've seen some kids in the past do that, and we try to work together to allow that. That's one of the benefits of a school of our size is kids being able to play multiple sports, but it takes a lot of planning, a lot of coordination and a lot of self-motivation from the kid when they're not at practice every day for cross country. You get home from a tough volleyball game and (ask), 'do I really want to go on a four-mile run right now?' A lot of kids say no, and Molly says yes. A lot of times, she had it done before the game. That's just her personality and her drive."

It didn't take Molly very long to chase down the school record. She set a new personal record in her first meet and kept shaving off time as the season wore on.

"My freshman year, my PR was a 20:43. Then my senior year, the first meet, which is always kind of like a rust-buster, I ran I think like a 20:20, and so that's a PR; I really didn't expect that," Molly said. "Then, since volleyball and weekday meets didn't really like line up on the schedule, it was about a month later when I ran at Lake Murray, and I ran a 19:14, which was over a minute PR; which was like, 'OK, where did that come from?' I think with the training plan I was on and since like our coaches know so much, I think it was just like catered perfectly."

Shanna knew it was only a matter of time.

"I was a little surprised it happened so early, but I knew it was going to happen," Shanna said. "She's the kind of athlete where I knew if she bought in and trusted the process, went the paces we told her to, that it would eventually be broken. Then I knew it was going to keep dropping. When an athlete of that caliber puts in the work and the effort, she's going to continue to improve."

Molly kept trimming off time as the fall wore on. By the time state rolled around, she was able to break 19 minutes, finishing in 18:47.56, shaving nearly 30 seconds off her initial record.

"She is a competitor and always wants to improve," Dustin said. "If she sets a school record, her next day she wants to break it again."

Once the cross country season came to a close, Molly and Shanna worked together to craft a new workout routine. Molly runs a wide range of events, and she wanted to train in a way that helps her prepare for both sprints and distance.

"She wanted to keep her speed but also have that endurance for that distance piece. Once she got back into it after recovering post-cross country, we did a couple of months really focused on that base. I was having her do a lot of easier runs in the aerobic zone, where the heart rate is pretty much at a conversational pace, which was hard for her because she likes to go fast. I told her to trust me, you have to build up your base first," Shanna, who also coaches hurdles during track season, explained. "Then I started throwing in some threshold workouts to help increase her threshold. As we progressed and she was getting closer to some indoor races, I started throwing in some more track-specific speed workouts. I had this longer-term outlook so she could get that base, build that up and work on that endurance at a higher pace and then work on that speed."

RECORDS KEEP FALLING

This spring, Molly has destroyed records at an earth-shattering pace. For most of the season, she's breaking a record a week. She topped her own records in the 400m hurdles and 800m run while setting new records overall in the 1,600m and 3,200m run, plus the open 400m dash.

"This year has been an insane year," she said.

As of this week, Molly's record in the 400m dash sits at 59.98. Her 800m mark is 2:18.31, while her 1,600m and 3,200m records are at 5:08.28 and 11:42.33. Molly's top time in the 400m hurdles this spring is 1:05.08. Those numbers might keep shrinking because Molly doesn't plan on slowing down.

"I mean, everyone wants to get a PR," Molly said as humbly as possible. "I don't know how to say it without sounding (cocky), but every time I PR, it's a school record. I really don't mean it like that. I just think of it as PRing, and who doesn't want to PR?"

Dustin is no stranger to watching these records fall at Wilson Hall. His daughter ran those relays with Molly before graduating and his son, Conner, holds all three distance records on the boys side for track and was the record-holder in cross country until Caulder Williamson topped his mark this fall. While the individual marks are impressive, the detail that catches Dustin's attention is the volume.

"I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an athlete that has that wide a breadth. When you bridge that wide gap from mid-distance to distance and break all the records, and she was competitive in the long jump, she did pole vault for a while," Dustin said. "She could probably do a lot of track and field events and be successful. We were at a small meet a few weeks ago, and she was doing the 100. I asked what she was doing, and she just said, 'I wanted to see how I'd do.'"

LEARNING FROM INJURY

Molly has always been a self-motivated athlete, but she gained a new perspective during her sophomore year when an injury kept her sidelined for most of the fall. While playing volleyball, she landed on a teammate's foot. She didn't break anything, but she was in constant pain. She tried to tough it out for a while but eventually realized she needed to take some time to rest.

"I think I became a lot stronger mentally because at first, I really tried to battle through the injury, which really didn't help at all. It actually just made it worse and put me in a cast and took me out like my entire fall season," she said. "I think being sidelined really made me appreciate my ability to do stuff, which sounds so stupid, but when it's taken away from you, you really can see how much it impacts you."

She also learned a lot from watching her brother go through a more extreme injury a year later. Last fall, Dylan was putting up monster numbers for the Baron football team as they continued their quest for a state title, but he tore his ACL just before the end of the regular season. That meant he missed out on his final season of baseball, where he played for his father.

"Seeing how hard he worked in football and how excited he was for his last season of baseball, it being stripped away was really hard to watch," Molly said. "It would be a disservice not to go all out this season and hit goals I never would've imagined."

Those experiences all fed into the mental edge that Molly tries to keep at all times.

"I really like the cliché of, 'If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you,' when thinking about the mental side of running," Molly said. "Some workouts are supposed to be hard, and that's how I know it's beneficial."