The cross country notebook ...

East Rowan’s boys scored one of their biggest victories in several seasons last week at Northwest Cabarrus, where they defeated defending state 2A champion Salisbury and several other perennially strong teams.

Coach Rick Roseman’s East boys scored 48 points to Salisbury’s 67. Charlotte Catholic was third with 69, followed by Northwest Cabarrus with 83.

Piedmont (145), South Rowan (168), Albemarle (196), Mooresville (209), West Rowan (236) and Central Cabarrus (246) completed the scoring.

Sophomore Philip Johnson led the way for East, taking fourth place with a time of 18 minutes, 15 seconds. Senior Jeff Schoch was sixth in 18:29. Joshua Pinyan also made the top 10 with a ninth-place time of 18:54. Jonathan Shive (11th in 19:04) and Adam Cornelius (18th in 19:53) were others in East’s top five.

Salisbury had defeated East by 28-36 in the Rowan County preseason meet.

West Rowan’s young girls, who won the preseason meet, had another strong showing, taking second place with 89 points and finishing five points ahead of SPC favorite Northwest Cabarrus. Catholic’s powerful team won with 32 points.

South Rowan (95), Salisbury (138), Mooresville (146), Albemarle (183), East Rowan (187), Central Cabarrus (188) and Piedmont (267) rounded out the scoring.

Freshman Emily Wallace finished eighth, and junior Allison Moore took ninth for coach Kent Houghton’s West girls with times of 23:14 and 23:15, respectively.

Tiffany Oliver placed 16th for the Falcons in 23:42.

Caleb Widite led West’s boys, taking 30th in 20:21.

Senior David Bost, the defending state 2A champion, took third place in 18:09 as he works to get back into last year’s form. He lost out to Northwest’s duo of Phillip Stafford, the winner in a course record 17:14, and Ryan Field, 17:51.

Tyler Vanderslice (fifth in 18:24), Ryan Lesley (16th in 19:42), Nirav Patel (20th in 20:02) and David Jordan (23rd in 20:07) rounded out the top five for coach Mike Allen’s Hornets.

Sophomore Anna Griffis ran well for the Salisbury girls, finishing fourth in 22:25. She trailed first-place Caitlin Coughlin (22:00) of Catholic by 25 seconds. Northwest’s Nicole Sensabaugh was second in 22:07, while Caitlin Gill of Catholic was third in 22:14.

Brett Howell led the Raider boys, taking seventh place in 18:46. Matt Fisher was 28th in 20:14.

Katie Willett, the defending Rowan County champion, finished fifth with a time of 22:42. Rachel Hinshaw (10th in 23:18) and Beth-Erin Springer (13th in 23:32) also ran well.

Senior Brittany Fox was the only East runner in the girls top 20. She finished 18th in 23:57.

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Ed Dupree covers cross country for the Post.