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West Rowan’s girls were the big surprise in the Rowan County preseason cross country meet on Tuesday, using their depth to take top honors.
Salisbury’s boys, led by individual winner David Bost, won as expected, and one of the girls favorites, Hornet Anna Griffis, took first place at Dan Nicholas Park.
West’s young girls, coached byKent Houghton, showed that they can contend for their first county title when the official county meet is held at Dan Nicholas on Sept. 26. With five runners in the top 13 and eight in the top 20, the Falcons downed runner-up Salisbury 45-52. South Rowan was third at 55, followed by defending county champion East Rowan with 60. North Rowan did not have enough runners to qualify for team scoring.
West junior Allison Moore led part of the race and finished third in 22:13. Freshman teammate Emily Wallace, an outstanding middle school track runner, was sixth in 22:33. Others in the Falcons’ top five were freshman Tiffany Oliver, 11th in 24:43; junior Natalie Jones, 12th in 24:47; and sophomore AshleyHaithcock, 13th in 24:52.
“It surprised me, really,” said Houghton. “I thought we could do well, but I didn’t know that we could win it. I had a couple of freshmen really step up, Emily Wallace and TiffanyOliver (11th in 24:43).
“Allison (Moore) made a drastic jump. I don’t think she ever got in the 22s last year, and she was in the low 22s today. She led pretty much the first half of the race. She ran real well.”
Moore finished 15th in the county meet last season in 23:55.
Houghton said Moore and a lot of her teammates put in some summer mileage to get ready for cross country.
“About all of them said they ran some over the summer, and it’s showing. Last year, when we started, we didn’t have anybody actually that had run any. Most of the girls that came out last year had never run before,” said Houghton.
The girls race shaped up as a battle between a pair of sophomores, defending county champion Katie Willett of South Rowan and Griffis of Salisbury. Willett, however, didn’t get in a lot of summer mileage after hurting her knee last fall. She wound up fourth in 22:29.
Griffis’ closest challenger was East senior Brittany Fox with a time of 22:00. She was followed by Moore, Willett, South freshman Rachel Hinshaw, Wallace and East sophomore Crystal Swinson.
The Salisbury boys, defending state 2A champions, scored 28 points to runner-up East’s 36. South was third with 77, followed by West with 107 and North at 152.
“I expected us to win,” admitted coach Mike Allen of the Hornets. “I thought East would be a challenge, but I thought we should win.”
Salisbury’s Bost, a senior and the defending state 2A champion, started slowly in the boys race, but won easily with a time of 17:04, 28 seconds ahead of senior teammate Tyler Vanderslice. Other leaders for Allen’s team were senior Nirav Patel, sixth in 18:20; junior Ryan Lesley, seventh in 18:51; and senior Adam Pannell, 12th in 19:39.
“David pleased me today,” said Allen. “He ran well. I was questioning some of David’s endurance, and David was questioning it.”
Allen explained that the talented senior didn’t get in as much summer running as he did the previous year.
“I told him not to take it out hard. I just said, ‘Stay in contention.’ When he came by about the halfway point in the lead, I felt pretty good. I was a little bit surprised that Tyler wasn’t a little bit closer today, but the big difference is, David has more speed than Tyler does right now.”
Bost and Vanderslice were followed by South junior Brett Howell, third in 17:46; East senior Jeff Schoch, fourth in 18:02; and East sophomore Phillip Johnson, fifth in 18:15.
Times recorded by Griffis and Bost are course records, because the 3.1-mile course has been shortened by about 75 yards since last year to avoid using part of the park’s campground area.
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