Cup standings show improvement

With two-thirds of the high school sports year finished, the updated Dodge Director's Cup standings show improvement for two local programs.

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Greenbrier High School remained the top ranked athletics program in Columbia County after the winter sports season. The Wolfpack program sits in a tie for fifth place in all of Class AAAA - a slight drop from its fourth-place ranking after the fall sports season.

Greenbrier earned 20 points during the winter sports season thanks to a 30th-place finish in the state by the wrestling team and a 27th-place finish by the boys swimming team.

The biggest improvement over the winter came from defending Columbia County Director's Cup champion Lakeside High School. The Panthers, previously ranked in a tie for 21st place after the fall sports season, jumped up five spots to a tie for 16th place. A third-place state finish in boys swimming last month led the push, along with 13th-place in girls swimming.

"It looks like our female sports have helped us out a lot," Lakeside athletics director Randy Hill said. "The good thing is we usually do real well in the spring with tennis and golf. Hopefully we'll get some help from soccer and lacrosse and baseball, too. There's a lot of opportunity for us to move up."

The Dodge Director's Cup ranks Georgia high school athletics programs according to how well their sports teams finish in state competition. Lakeside earned 100 points for a boys golf state championship in last year's fifth-place finish in the Class AAAA Dodge Director's Cup final standings.

This year, Greenbrier currently holds a 90-point advantage over Lakeside and a 130-point advantage over 28th place Evans.

In the Class AAA standings, Harlem sits in a tie for 71st place out of the 79 teams who have seen state competition this year.