West Rowan’s Houghton, shaken up in an automobile accident the day before, held off Salisbury’s David Bost to lead boys with a time of 17 minutes, 14 seconds over a 3.1-mile course at Dan Nicholas Park.

East Rowan’s Misenheimer, who had not run in about five days because of shin splints, led girls in 21:49.

Bost (17:22), who lost the lead late in the boys race when he took a wrong turn, paced coach Mike Allen’s strong Salisbury team to first place with a score of 29 to runner-up East’s 53. West was third with 60, followed by South Rowan, 79, and North Rowan, 144.

Misenheimer, freshman Crystal Swinson (21:58) and juniors Brittany Fox (22:22) and Amber Lawlor (22:35) swept the first four places as coach Amy Wensil’s East girls won with 21 points to second-place South Rowan’s 59. Salisbury was third with 68, followed by West with 87. North did not have the required five runners to score as a team.

“I had a rough night last night. They (three teammates) came and picked me up after practice, and we rolled it. We landed on the roof off of Hurley School Road,” said Houghton.

Driver and team manager Tony Parker, Brian Schmitt and Justin Dionne were the other occupants of the vehicle. All escaped serious injury.

“When we came out here today, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel,” said Houghton. “When I went to the emergency room last night, I had my ribs checked out. ... Tony’s neck and face were banged up pretty good,” said Houghton, who was riding in the front passenger seat.

“Dionne and I were on the same side. Our side didn’t have quite as much damage as theirs. Schmitt was cut up a little bit. I think it was more getting out of the car after it rolled,” he continued.

“It could have been disastrous,” said coach Mike Young, who learned of the accident the next morning. “Justin Dionne came in and told me about it. Josh came in a little bit later.”

“I really wanted this race,” said Houghton, who finished second to Bost in another close finish in the county meet last fall. “I came out here wanting to take it easier at the start, which I didn’t actually do as I planned. Bost ran a strong last mile. It was everything I could do to keep up with him. He made kind of a wrong turn (in the last 500 meters),” said the West runner.

“I just took a real bad turn,” said Bost, who had a slight lead over Houghton before taking the wrong trail down by the lake. The two runners came out of different trails as they neared the dam and the final straightaway.

“I came out of the woods about 10, 15 or 20 meters further back than I should have. I kind of lost track of where he (Houghton) was,” said Bost. “I thought I would be DQed (disqualified). I just got lucky.”

Bost sprinted to catch up with Houghton as they reached the dam.

“We ran a full sprint,” said Houghton. “He (Bost) ran an awesome race. I’ve got to give it to him for that.”

Misenheimer, the county champion last year with a time of 21:01, wasn’t quite as fast yesterday, but she had no complaints.

“I hadn’t run in four days because I’ve been having shin splints real bad,” said Misenheimer, who changes surfaces while competing in three sports — cross country, basketball and track. “I’ve been swimming the past four days. They (shins) are still hurting a little bit. After having not run for four days with my team, I’m fairly satisfied. But there’s a lot of room for improvement, because I’ve got a lot of goals set, this being my senior year.”

Misenheimer was out front by a safe margin most of the way, but freshman Swinson finished strong to break 22 minutes.

“She probably speeded up a little bit at the very end. I didn’t really see her,” said Misenheimer. “She ran a heck of a race. She’s going to be real good.

“I thought our team did a great job. Lora (Williams) is going to be right up there also. I think she pulled her hamstring,” Misenheimer said.

Williams, second in last year’s county meet, finished 11th.

“She went down with, we think, a hamstring strain,” said Coach Wensil. “She had hurt it last year. When she went up a hill, she started feeling it getting tight.”

Wensil was pleased to have the top four finishers.

“With the top five, I think either one could beat any other one in any given meet,” she said. “Brooke’s been doing a lot of things to make herself stronger, especially after her basketball injury (strained knee ligament). I think she’s probably in the best shape she’s ever been in other than the shin splints.”

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in our team,” said Misenheimer, the team’s only senior and the obvious leader. “I think we’re going to have a really great team. I think we’re going to have anywhere from five to seven really strong runners.”

Allen, Salisbury’s coach, had four of the top six finishers with Darius Hyman fourth in 17:46, Tyler Vanderslice fifth in 17:52 and Matt Denison sixth in 17:58.

“For the first meet, I’m pretty pleased,” said Allen, who coached the Hornets to second in the state 2A meet last season. “The times weren’t quite what some of them wanted, but they hadn’t really trained as hard as they could. I’m looking for bigger and better things.”

East’s Jeff Schoch took third place in 17:35. Others in the top 10 were South’s Brett Howell (seventh in 18:16), West’s Chris Duffy, East’s Brent Dorris and East’s Phillip Johnson.