Gamewell’s East team captured the school’s first girls county championship in 18 years by outdueling Salisbury100-96 for the title.

Gamewell(the former Lu Holshouser), a track star herself at East before earning a scholarship to the University of North Carolina, never got to compete in a county meet, since she graduated from East in 1977 — two years before the first girls meet was held. Sister Sally was a member of the only previous East team that won in 1982.

Since Gamewell’s first season as East’s coach in 1988, the Mustangs have finished second seven times.

She was concerned coming into the meet, since several key team members, like county pole vault record-holder Tiffany Bost, were on spring break vacations.

“We knew we had a good chance without them, but some people had to step up and do some things,” said Gamewell. “Ashley Burleson and Haley Shaw had to step up and run some relays they hadn’t been doing, and they did a good job on that. Brittney Fox (three third places) had to step up and run the mile, the 2-mile, the 800 and the (3200) relay. Brooke (Misenheimer) did that, too, but Brooke’s used to doing it. Of course, Brooke’s leg’s been injured. Brooke and Brittney really made a difference there.”

East’s scoring leader was distance runner Misenheimer (22 points), who won the 1600 in 5:38.18, ran with Burleson, Fox and Shaw on the first-place 3200 relay quartet (11:06.10) and finished second in both the 800 and 3200.

East’s only other first place was by high jumper Crystal MacLamroc, who cleared 4 feet, 8 inches and won over teammates Brianna Mundy and Allison Troutman on fewer misses.

Gamewell, however, was pleased that her young team piled up points with its depth, taking six second places and eight thirds. She also got points in events where East usually doesn’t do well.

“Akya Canada got a second in the 100 meters and a third in the 200 meters. She stepped up and did that. ... A lot of people did their best times and best distances, stepped up and really came through for us,” said Gamewell.

East had finished a disappointing third in the South Piedmont ConferenceMeet last week.

“The seniors were disappointed last week, but this is really great for them, because this is something we haven’t done, won a county meet,” said Gamewell.

One of those seniors, Misenheimer, competed well despite being bothered by a recently pulled hamstring muscle. She received the meet’s Most Valuable Participant award for distance events for the second straight year.

“It’s just an honor just to win, especially my senior year. We were kind of skeptical, just because we were missing some big people in big events today just because it’s in the middle of spring break,” said Misenheimer. “I think everybody came through and ran their best. I’m proud of everybody.It’s an honor to be able to beat Salisbury and North and good teams like that.”

Host North Rowan, the defending champion, finished third with 73 points. South Rowan and West Rowan rounded out the scoring with 54 and 44, respectively.

While East won the team championship, North All-American LaTasha Pharr and West’s Telea Vinson dominated individually, each receiving an MVP award — Pharr in field events and Vinson in sprints.

Pharr took four first places. The junior broke her own meet records in the triple jump, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles and won the long jump.

Pharr improved her 1999 meet records from 38-8 to 39-3 in the triple jump, from 14.30 to 14.10 in the 100 hurdles and from 47.82 to 46.30 in the 300 hurdles. Her winning long jump was 18 feet.

Vinson also had an amazing meet. She came into the meet with the county’s best 200 time of 27.12, but ranked second in the 400 and third in the 100. She started her day by winning the 100 dash in 12.92 seconds, then beat top-seeded Mundy of East in the 400 with a 1:02.0 time. Vinson’s final victory came with the season’s fastest time of 26.56 in the 200. She also shares the county lead with Mundy at 1:02.0 in the 400.

South’s Amanda Shirley was a meet record-breaker with a pole vault of 8-6, much higher than she and teammate Cassidy Corriher cleared last year (7 feet). Shirley also tied East’s Bost for the all-time record, which had been set by Bost in last year’s state 3A meet.

Other individual winners were North’s Garette Hunter with a shot put of 33 feet; South’s Brittney Gaddy with a discus toss to 102-3; South freshman Katie Willett with an impressive 2:26.42 time in the 800; and Salisbury freshman Anna Griffis with a 12:45.87 clocking in the 3200.