Anthony Downs, Charles Peterson, Walter Todd, Jean Hammond Whitfield and Robert P. Wilder are the five new members of the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame.

The Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame will induct five members into its fifth class on April 25.

The induction ceremony will be held at the Laurens County Museum on the historic square in Laurens at 6:30 p.m.

Downs was a member of the Laurens football state championship team in 1983 and played in the Shrine Bowl that year. At Appalachian State University, Downs was a consensus first-team Div. I-AA All-American as a senior in 1987. He was named 1987 Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year after amassing 138 tackles. Downs was a three-time first-team all-Southern Conference performer and was inducted into Appalachian’s Hall of Fame in 2012.

Peterson led the Laurens Raiders to a baseball state championship in 1990 and a football state championship in 1991. During his high-school career, Peterson was named state player of the year in baseball and football and played in the Shrine Bowl. Peterson was drafted in 1993 by the Pittsburgh Pirates as the 22nd overall pick in the first round of MLB’s amateur draft. He played six years in the minor leagues, making it to Triple-A in 1998. 

A graduate of LDHS and Presbyterian College, Todd was inducted into the S.C. Golf Hall of Fame this year. Todd has competed at the local, state, national and international levels for nearly four decades. In South Carolina, he won the SCGA Mid-Amateur Champion title in 2005, CGA Mid-Amateur title in 2007, seven SCGA Four-Ball titles, three SCGA Father-Son titles with both of his sons and nine Musgrove Mill Club Champion titles. He is three-time SCGA Senior Player of the Year and 2019 Senior Azalea Champion. Todd won the 2017 Senior Jones Cup Champion title, competed in the 2012 U.S. Mid-Amateur, 2016, ’19 & ‘22 British Senior Amateurs and the 2018, ’19, ’21 & ‘23 U.S. Senior Amateurs advancing to the quarterfinals in 2019.

A graduate of Hickory Tavern High School and a current resident of Laurens, Whitfield was inducted into the S.C. Women’s Bowling Association Hall of Fame in 1984. She won four international titles, including overall champion and doubles champion in the Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela in 1983. She was a member of the U.S. Team in 1982 and 1983. Whitfield was also the top amateur in the WIBC championship in 1982. 

Wilder was a resident of Clinton from 1935 to 1993. He was a football All-American in 1930 at Furman University and is a member of its Athletic Hall of Fame. Wilder coached Clinton High School’s first Upstate championship team in 1938 and its first state championship team in 1938. He was later the principal at Clinton High School and superintendent of District 56. Wilder Stadium is named for him. 

The process of selecting the class began in the summer of 2023. Nominations were taken from Sept. 15-Dec. 31.

Once nominations were complete, the nominating committee, made up of seven individuals from Laurens County, narrowed the field of 61 nominations down to 12 finalists.The 12 finalists were then taken to the three-person selection committee that picked the five inductees. 

To be eligible for the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame, nominees must have lived in Laurens County for five years and must be 10 years out of high school.

Already members of the Hall of Fame ARE Keith Richardson, Chrissy Floyd, J.D. Fuller, Kevin Long, King Dixon, Barry Atkinson, Cally Gault, Chick Galloway, Sam Owens, Kinard Littleton, Rickey Foggie, Truman Owens, Bobby Ivey, Clovis Simmons, William Hill, Bill Hogan, Phil Rogers, Lonnie Pulley, Anne Parks, Ed Pitts, Roy Walker, Shell Dula and Buddy Jennings.

Tickets for the induction banquet will go on sale online on Monday, March 11. Individual tickets are $30 and include a catered meal.

Presbyterian College has two more shots to nudge up the seedings a bit in advance of the Big South Tournament, blending the conference’s men’s and women’s basketball at Qubein Center in High Point, N.C., next week.

Both PC teams are coming off high points as High Point approaches. While Alaura Sharp’s women were polishing off Winthrop by 22 points at Templeton Center, Quinton Ferrell’s men were scattering the Eagles by 23 in Rock Hill.

A similar arrangement is in place on Wednesday, with the women in Clinton and the men in Spartanburg.

Both teams are well rested, having had Saturday off. USC Upstate ends its regular season with the matchups against PC.

Sharp’s shooters have won four in a row, by margins, respectively, of seven, 17, 15 and 22 points. USC Spartanburg (15-13, 10-5 BSC) poses an imminent to the Presbyterian (16-13, 7-7) streak. Winthrop, after falling, 62-40, to PC, defeated the Spartans, 67-61, on Saturday.

The Spartans won the earlier game between the two, 62-58, on Jan. 31.

PC’s team has grown greater than the sum of its parts. The Blue Hose’ top three scorers average 12.6 (Bryanna Brady), 12.2 (Tilda Sjokvist) and 11.5 (Mara Neira) points.  Brady and Neira each average 4.5 rebounds. Sjokvist leads in assists (97), Neira in steals (41) and Brady in blocks (24).

Isabell West (10.4) and Trinity Johnson (10.3), once a PC star, lead Upstate in scoring. The Spartans have dropped three of their last four games.

Tipoff at The Temp is 6:30 p.m. The regular season concludes with a 2 p.m. game on Saturday versus Charleston Southern in, yes, North Charleston.

It’s Greek Night, meaning that students have opportunities to win prizes in luau-themed games.

So there’s that.

After opening their Big South season with losses in six of the first seven games, Ferrell’s Blue Hose have recovered as best they could. Presbyterian (13-16, 5-9) is 4-3 since the opening slump.

Samage Teel scored 22 points in PC’s 78-55 victory over Winthrop, the first triumph in Rock Hill since Feb. 14, 2012.

The game Wednesday opens at G.B. Hodge Center at 7 p.m. USC Upstate (9-19, 4-11) has lost three straight to Gardner-Webb, Charleston Southern and Winthrop since shocking High Point, 86-81 in overtime, on Feb. 14.

Marquis Barnett, who scored 19 versus Winthrop, leads the Blue Hose at an average of 15.1 points and leads the conference in steals with 56. Teel averages 13.0 points.

PC defeated the Spartans, 80-73, at Templeton on Jan. 31, but Upstate leads the series, 19-17. A victory would give the Blue Hose their first sweep of a conference opponent since Charleston Southern in 2021-22. Upstate swept the Blue Hose a season ago.

What makes Wednesday’s game doubly significant is that only USC Upstate ranks lower than the Blue Hose in the conference standings. PC, Longwood, Charleston Southern and Radford are all 5-9. The tournament begins next Wednesday with a play-in game between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds. The bottom five would prefer to avoid having to play an extra game.

Trae Broadnax leads the Spartans with a 14.3 scoring average and 101 assists. Justin Bailey averages 12.1, and the leader on the glass is Ahmir Langlais at 6.2 a game.

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