David Bost extended his streak to a county record and helped Salisbury’s boys continue their streak in the annual Rowan County cross country meet on Tuesday.

Bost, a Salisbury senior, won his third straight county title, a feat that had never been accomplished, at Dan Nicholas Park, and the Hornets won their third championship in a row by the slimmest of margins — a tie-breaker.

Bost and senior teammate Tyler Vanderslice, who led early, finished 1-2 for coach Mike Allen’s Hornets with times of 16:49 and 17:09 for 3.05 miles on a cloudy, cool, windy afternoon.

However, it was the team’s No. 6 runner, sophomore David Jordan, who won the tie-breaker for Salisbury. Salisbury and East tied with 29 points, based on the finishing positions of each school’s top five, so the No. 6 runners decided it. Jordan’s 12th-place finish broke the tie.

Salisbury swept both individual titles with sophomore Anna Griffis outdueling South Rowan freshman Rachel Hinshaw by nine seconds. Griffis, fourth a year ago, had a time of 20:47 to Hinshaw’s 20:56.

West Rowan’s girls, who had won the county preseason meet, duplicated that performance with 37 points to runner-up Salisbury’s 49. Coach Kent Houghton’s Falcons were losing by several points about halfway into the race, but depth paid off for West, which had five runners in the top 11.

Bost, the defending state 2A champion, won his first title as a sophomore with a time of 17:02 for 3.1 miles. Last year, with the course shortened to 3.05, he triumphed in 16:18.

“I thought about it a lot last week a whole lot,” said Bost of the possibility of winning his third title in a row. “It feels good. It’s something I’ll definitely remember.”

Vanderslice went out fast and led the early part of the race before Bost caught up with him and eventually pulled ahead.

“We were pretty much side by side probably until the last mile. I could tell that he was with me the whole race. That’s really what we need team-wise. If we’re going to win meets, we’ve got to have people packed up. I was glad he was there,” said Bost.

The Salisbury star came into the season without as much summer training as he had done the previous year.

“I hadn’t been training as much as I should be. Things haven’t been going too well at the beginning of the season. Today had to be a good day. I think it went pretty well,” he said.

Coach Allen expected a close meet, but said, “I actually thought on paper they (East) were better. A smaller meet kind of gave us the advantage. In a bigger meet, places kind of spread out a little bit.”

He had special praise for Jordan.

“I’m pleasantly surprised. He really stepped it up. He told me he was ready. The last thing I told them yesterday at practice was to visualize doing well and beating some people. It was one of his better times. I think he’s going to continue to get better,” said Allen.

He, of course, had praise for the 1-2 finishes by Bost and Vanderslice.

“I guess I think David should win every time out, but that’s an accomplishment (winning three straight years). Davis was not happy with his time, but it was chilly and the wind was against him.

“That was a gutsy move on Tyler’s part taking it out.He told me he felt good today and he was going to take it out. It worked out for him. If Tyler gets a little bit stronger and can maintain the pace he went out on, that’ll be good for state and regionals,” said the coach.

Nirav Patel (seventh in 17:55), Ryan Lesley (ninth in 18:07) and Jacob Melton(10th in 18:10) rounded out Salisbury’s top five.

East runners Jeff Schoch (17:22), Philip Johnson (17:29), Joshua Pinyan (17:31) and Jonathan Shive (17:44) finished 3-4-5-6, respectively, while Adam Cornelius was 11th in 18:20.

“I figured it would be this close. I thought in what amounted to a two-team meet ... it could go to the tie-breaker,” said East coach Rick Roseman, whose teams won nine straight titles from 1987 through 1995. “Salisbury ran great. They did exactly what they had to do. But our kids ran great times, too. We had four kids in the 17s.”

Winning races is nothing new to Salisbury’s Griffis, who was the Central Carolina Conference champion as a freshman, but she was surprised that South’s Katie Willett, the 1999 champion, wasn’t in the meet.

“Just before the race started, I noticed that she still hadn’t come,” said Griffis, who found out from South’s team that Willett had given up cross country to concentrate on basketball.

“Her teammate (Hinson): I had never seen her before. She came up, and it took me by surprise,” said the Salisbury runner. “She led me all the way, then at the end of the road (less than a mile to go), I started picking it up a lot and I just stayed that pace the rest of the way.”

Griffis pointed out that she ran 20:58 in last year’s county meet and only 11 seconds faster this time.

“I ran 20:15 in the conference last year. To break 20, that’s been my goal since last year,” she said.

West’s girls made a better showing than in the preseason meet, when the Falcons had 45 points to Salisbury’s 52.

Freshman Emily Wallace and junior Allison Moore led the way, finishing third (21:09) and fourth (21:12), respectively. Rounding out West’s top five were Tiffany Oliver (ninth in 22:59), AshleyHaithcock (10th in 23:07) and Natalie Jones (11th in 23:08). That trio made a move in the second half of the race to pass Salisbury runners and insure the team’s victory.

“When they came back through at the finish line (first loop around the lake), it looked like we had picked up a little bit on them. I told them there that they needed to get those Salisbury runners ahead of them,” said Houghton.

“Emily and Allison both ran real good races. It was the fastest times both of them have run so far. They all ran real well, I thought. When I told them what they needed to do, they went and did it.”

The top eight girls — Griffis, Hinshaw, Wallace Moore, East’s Brittany Fox, South’s Beth-Erin Springer, Salisbury’s Maria Mendez and South’s Katie Morgan — and top eight boys — Bost, Vanderslice, Schoch, Johnson, Pinyan, Shive,Patel and South’s Brett Howell — earned all-county honors.