West’s Steele steals show in SPC

BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

West Rowan freshman Sherina Steele was dominant in the girls meet, taking three first places and a second, earning her the Most Valuable Participant award.

East Rowan’s Hollie Holder won the girls shot put and discus, and Danny Misenheimer of the East boys took the shot.

Jason Fink, Justin Davis and Robert Bombo each took a first place for the West boys.

Northwest Cabarrus’ girls, coached by Keith Rhoney, took their first SPC title since 1994 with 127 points. Runner-up Harding scored 115, and defending champ East Rowan was third with 106. Steele led West’s girls to fourth with 75.5.

Coach Anthony Blakeney’s Northwest Trojans ran away with the boys title with 121 points.It was the first conference title for the Trojans since 1995. West Rowan, which won in 1994, was second with 87 points, followed by Sun Valley with 86 and East Rowan with 63.

Rhoney and Blakeney were voted Coaches of the Year, and Central Cabarrus sprinter Lamont Reid was selected Most Valuable Participant in the boys meet.

Steele long jumped 16 feet, 101

“She scored 38 points by herself, and she’s a freshman,” said coach Mike Young of West, who pointed out that Steele wasn’t in four individual events at the start of the season.

“We didn’t have her in the jumps to start with. We just had her in the two hurdles and a couple of relays. Then we messed around in practice and saw that she could jump. We just abandoned the relays, because we just didn’t have enough people to have really good relays. I’d rather have individuals that can score, score. ... It’s the best I’ve ever had anyone to do. The most points you can score is 40,” said Young.

Lu Gamewell, who had been hoping for her fifth title in seven years, was still pleased with the East girls’ third-place showing.

“Hollie(Holder) did great. She didn’t throw as well in the discus as she could (89-10), but she won it. She won the shot (31-1), and that was a nice surprise. She was ranked fourth or fifth going into the shot,” said Gamewell.

Holder was seeded first in the discus with a throw of 96-1.

“She threw probably a little over 100 in her last throw, but she scratched,” said Gamewell.

“I wish we could have placed a little higher, but I was pleased with what everybody did. A lot of people did their best times and their best distances,” said the East coach.

For West’s boys, Fink threw the discus 139-9, Davis triple jumped 41-41

“He (Fink) had been seeded first all year, then Misenheimer and some other people came up and knocked him down to fourth,” said West coach Ralph Ellis. “He threw well enough to get first.”

Ellis said of Davis’ triple jump, “He hasn’t lost the triple jump all year except for the North meet (North Rowan Track Classic). If you jump 41 feet on this pit, it’s real good.”

Bombo, said Ellis, “ran a personal best, the best time he’s run in his career. He ran one heck of a race.”

Ellis also had praise for distance runner JoshHoughton, who finished strong to take second in the 1600 in 4:41.09.

“He was in fifth place with 100 meters to go. That was a good effort today,” said Ellis.

For East’s boys, Misenheimer won the shot put with a heave of 54-11

“I was pleased with his shot put today, because he’s been wrestling so much,” said Darrell Misenheimer, East’s coach and Danny’s father.

Danny won the super heavyweight title last month in the state 3A wrestling tournament and got a late start in track practice.

“He’s really starting to peak in the shot put. That’s his strongest thing, because he’s a little bit short and he doesn’t have that big long wing span,” said the East coach.

Northwest’s Tempess Stark and Harding’s Jessica Carroll were both triple winners in the girls meet. Stark won the 100 in 12.51, 200 kin 26.02 and 400 in 1:00.99. Carroll won the 1600 in 5:37.09, then took the 800 in 2:26.55. She was running third late in the 3200 but came on strong to win that event in 12:30.38.

Central’s Reid was the boys MVP after winning the 100 in 11.02 and 200 in 22.65 plus running on the Vikings’ first-place 800 relay team.

Dustin Reedy of Northwest won the 110 hurdles in 15.15 and the 300 hurdles in 40.68.

The host Kannapolis girls and boys each won the 400 relay.