GRANITE QUARRY — The king is back on his throne in Rowan County boys track after a one-year hiatus.
Coach Robert Steele’s North Rowan Cavaliers, a perennial power, had won 11 straight county crowns before West Rowan stunned North a year ago.
Led by sprinter Thomas Mashore and freshman jumper Terry Wood, the Cavaliers scored 119 points on Tuesday at East Rowan, while runner-up West finished with 97. East and Salisbury tied for third with 63 apiece, followed by South Rowan with 31.
“The guys had a great day,” said North’s Steele. “We had some expectations. We wanted to jump well, we wanted to throw well and we wanted to sprint well. I believe we did a pretty good job of it.”
He was glad to get back on top in his friendly rivalry with West coaches Ralph Ellis and Willie Ellis.
“Willie and Ralph do a great job with their kids. They present a real challenge. Our kids were sort of looking forward to today’s meet, because it’s been sort of an ongoing thing for a year.”
Mashore, who sat out the North Rowan Classic on Saturday with a hamstring injury, came back strong, winning the 200-meter dash in 22.47 seconds and the 400 in 51.21 plus running on winning 800 (1:32.41) and 1600 (3:34.51) relay teams.
“I didn’t want to chance running Thomas in the 100. He told me this weekend that he felt a lot better and he wanted to run. I told him I’d give him a chance and see how it worked. Everything he ran today, he won,” said the North coach.
Mashore ran with Adrian Sloan, Ray Johnson and Jeremiah Cauthen in the 800 relay and with Sloan, Lenard Colbert and Jason McDowell in the 1600 relay.
Wood was a double winner with a long jump of 21 feet, 2 12 inches and a triple jump of 43-11.
“He’s a freshman in classification, but he’s been around a long time with his AAU experience. He was national champion in the triple jump last year as a 14-year-old. He excelled again today like he has all year,” said Steele.
McDowell took the 800 in 2:06.89, Sloan won the 300 hurdles in 40.77 and Bobby Rhodes high jumped 6 feet for the Cavaliers’ other first places.
Star sprinter Malachi Jones of the Cavaliers sat out the meet with a hamstring injury, and Steele hopes he’ll get back in top form.
“We’re coming along. Hopefully, we’ll soon get him back where we can get back at full strength and try to make a run at some other challenges that we’ve set as goals for our team,” said Steele.
Runner-up West’s first places were by Matt Smith with a time of 14.98 in the 110 hurdles; Jesse Morgan with a pole vault of 11 feet; Brent Marlin with a shot put of 45-5; Horatio Everhart with a 10.96 clocking in the 100; and Norris White, James Francis, Robert Clement and Jonathan Diggs with a 43.64 time in the 400 relay.
Most valuable participant awards went to Mashore in the sprints, Wood in the field events and East’s Phillip Johnson in the distance races after he won the 1600 in 4:45.67 and 3200 in 10:46.11.
East’s Jonathan Shive, David Cline, Jeff Schoch and Joshua Pinyan won the 3200 relay in 8:44.12.
Salisbury’s husky Austin Imes won the discus on his final toss of the afternoon, 146-7 12.
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