East runners look for strong start in county opener

The three-letter prefix won’t alter the motivation of the East Rowan boys cross country team.

When the teams meet at the Pre-County Meet at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Dan Nicholas Park, the bragging rights at stake won’t compare to the ones on the line in late September’s County Meet.

But the Mustangs haven’t forgotten last year’s County Meet, where Salisbury and East tied for first but the Hornets claimed the title via a tiebreaker.

The Mustangs want to prove they are the best team in the county, but the true test comes at the County Meet on Sept. 25. East will try to have its August thirst quenched on Tuesday.

“I won’t have to motivate our kids, the kids will motivate themselves Tuesday,” East coach Rick Roseman said. “With a county meet, it comes down to the pride factor. We want to see who wants it most.”

East lost three of its top five runners from last year’s team that finished eighth at the 3A state championships. Jeff Schoch, Joshua Pinyan and Adam Cornelius are gone, but the Mustangs have two all-conference performers returning in Philip Johnson and Jonathan Shive.

“We’re anxious to get back on top of the county,” Roseman said. “This county has some very good teams.

East Rowan’s girls, coached by Paula Rogers, have only six runners. And three are new to the team.

Heather Wensil, a sophomore, is the Mustang’s top runner.

“We’re looking at the three people who’ve run before to be strong leaders,” Rogers said.

The boy’s cross country team slipped a little last season after winning the state title in 1999 and finishing second in 1998.

A fifth-place finish in 2000 wasn’t a dramatic fall, but it means coach Mike Allen has some work to do to get the Hornets back on top.

“We’re kind of starting over,” Allen said. “We’re trying to build it back up.”

Three of the Hornets’ top seven runners return, including senior Ryan Lesley.

The girls team, coached by Cathy Smith, have finished 10th at the 2A State Championships each of the last two years and still have Anna Griffis leading the way.

Mike Buckland, who coaches the boys and girls, has higher hopes coming into his second season.

Buckland said each team has two or three of its top-seven runners returning, and his team is still in the rebuilding phase.

“Last year we had to scrounge for a team, but it looks better this year,” Buckland said. “But we’re miles away from being anything like East or Salisbury.”

Boys coachDwayne Fink thought he had a strong freshman class three years ago with Brett Howell, Russell Perry, Robby Moore and Luke Lord.

Those four are seniors now, and Fink is loaded with another talented group of freshmen this season.

Fink thinks the quintet of Graham Davis, Randy Goodman, Caleb Henley, Matt Misenheimer and Brenton Woodie could figure into the team scoring by the end of the season.

“This is the strongest young group we’ve had in years,” Fink said. “We thought these seniors were a strong freshman group. This group definitely rivals, if not surpasses, that group.”

The girls team, coached by Chris Beaver, got off to a good start this season by finishing with the best cumulative time in the Citizens Bank Cross Country Festival on Aug. 16.

Katie Willett, a junior who didn’t run last year, finished first in the race for South, which has a roster of five girls.

West Rowan

The Falcons have five experienced runners back in seniors Caleb White and Brian Schmitt, and sophomores Brian Duggan, Patrick Adams and Steve Disseler.

“We were mostly freshmen last year,” said Young. “We’re hoping to be better with that year of experience.

“The kids reported in better shape and we’ve been running workouts this preseason that we weren’t running until midseason last year.”

West girls coach Kent Houghton is optimistic with a whopping turnout of 16 runners that includes established stars and talented youngsters.

Sophomore Emily Wallace and senior Allison Moore are back and stronger than ever and a large group of Falcons — Natalie Jones, Kendall Overcash, Blair Harkey, Jodi Hatley, Callie Houghton and Devon Williams (the latter two are freshmen)— have been running close to the two leaders.

“They’ve all been pushing each other pretty good for two weeks,” said Houghton. “We haven’t timed the girls on a course yet, so we’re anxious to see how they do on Tuesday.”