Prep notebook: St. David’s earns third straight NCISAA 2A Wells Fargo Cup

St. David’s has won its third consecutive N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association Wells Fargo Cup for 2A schools after another stellar 2015-16 sports campaign. The Warriors have won six of the last seven Wells Fargo Cups, which awards overall excellence across each school’s athletic program.

State titles in girls’ tennis and boys’ golf highlighted the year at St. David’s, while the football and girls’ soccer teams made the state finals. The Warriors were also a final four team in boys’ basketball.

“We needed a contribution from teams in each season to retain the cup,” said Warriors Athletic Director Sherry Kapelar. “I am proud to be associated with coaches and students who want to put in the extra work required to be the best.”

The top eight finishing teams in each sport in the state earn points in the competition. St. David’s totaled 357.5 points, 20 ahead of runner-up Cary Christian.

Wayne Country Day was the 1A Cup winner, while Ravenscroft and Cary Academy were third and fourth in the 3A ranks.

MLB Draft starts Thursday: A handful of area high school baseball standouts are likely to see their dreams of professional baseball become a reality this week. The 2016 MLB Draft runs from Thursday through Saturday.

Two Orange County standouts lead the list of likely area draftees: catcher Brad Debo and pitcher Bryse Wilson.

Debo (6-foot, 221 pounds) hit .446 for the Panthers this spring with five home runs and 24 RBIs. He struck out just four times in 81 plate appearances.

Wilson (6-1, 215) struck out 133 batters in 84 innings of work with just 12 walks. He was 10-2 with a 0.75 ERA.

Bunn hitter Spencer Brickhouse is also a widely regarded pro prospect. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound projected pro first baseman hit .516 with 13 home runs and 38 RBIs this spring.

Rian Haire, a left-handed pitcher from South Caldwell, is regarded as the top high school eligible prospect in the state.

Debo, Wilson, Brickhouse, Haire and Greenville’s D.H. Conley first baseman Bryant Packard are all ranked in Baseball America’s Top 100 national list of draft eligible high school players.

Davidson is N.C. Gatorade Softball POY: Orange High School junior Mia Davidson has been named the Gatorade Softball Player of the Year for the state of North Carolina. The 5-foot-5 catcher hit .740 with 18 home runs, 49 RBIs and 57 runs scored in helping the Panthers reach the third round of the state playoffs. Her on-base percentage was .851, and she posted an amazing slugging percentage of 2.060.

She is ranked as a top-10 recruit nationally in the class of 2017 by flosoftball.com.

Davidson was the Big 8 Conference Player of the Year and has 43 career home runs, two shy of the NCHSAA career record. She and her sister Montana Davidson, a senior shortstop, both have committed verbally to play at Mississippi State.

Clayton grad breaks American women’s hurdles record: Keni Harrison was already one of the top track and field athletes in the nation leading up to the Rio Olympics in August before the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet on the campus of the University of Oregon on May 28. But her run in the women’s 100-meter hurdles vaulted the Clayton High graduate to another level.

Harrison set the American record in the event, winning in 12.24 seconds. It is the second-fastest time ever run in the event. Bulgarian Kordanka Donkova holds the world record in 12.21 seconds. The mark was set in 1988, the same year she ran the same 12.24 that Harrison tied.

“I felt really smooth,” Harrison said in a post-race interview. “That’s the only thing that keeps running through my mind.”

The time was 0.12 second quicker than her previous best and came with an allowable 0.7 meters per second tailwind. The previous American record was a 12.26 run by Brianna Rollins in 2013.

“I’m very surprised,” she said. “I’ve been training really hard. I’m just excited to see what’s to come.”

Harrison still has events to run in Great Britain (Birmingham) on June 5 and in Sweden (Stockholm) on June 16 before the U.S. Olympic Trials from July 1-10 back at Hayward Field in Oregon.

“Of course, now, I’m probably going to have a target on my back,” Harrison said. “That’s only going to make me train harder and listen to what my coach says.”

Pride standout shines in Team USA tryouts: Leesville Road junior Lauren McNamara-Clement made it through to the final 40 in tryouts for the USA 17U girls’ national basketball team last week. McNamara-Clement is a 6-foot-3 center.

Janelle Bailey, another 6-foot-3 center, of Matthews Providence Day was the only North Carolina player to make the final 12-player national team roster.

The squad will play in the FIBA U17 World Championships in Spain later this month.

This story was originally published June 5, 2016 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: St. David’s earns third straight NCISAA 2A Wells Fargo Cup."