It was no surprise that Bost repeated as the county boys individual champion at Dan Nicholas Park, but the Salisbury junior blew away the field, running a 3.05-mile course in 16 minutes, 18 seconds to win by 36 seconds.

Then, in the afternoon’s second race, freshman Willett of South Rowan was even more dominant, winning in 19:55 and beating injury-plagued Brooke Misenheimer, the defending champion from East Rowan, by more than a minute.

Bost’s time is the second-fastest ever by a male runner in the county meet with East’s Benjamin Frick holding the record of 16:15 over a 2.95-mile course at East in 1993. The best time ever for the regulation 3.1 miles was a 16:56 by Drew Caldwell of North Rowan two years ago.

Willett is the first Rowan female runner to break 20 minutes on any course in five years. Her time is the best in a county meet since East’s Rebekah Frick’s 19:54 on South’s 3.1-mile course in 1992. That’s also the best ever for 3.1 miles. South’s Miriam Karriker turned in the fastest time ever, 17:47, over a short 2.8-mile course at City Park in 1985, the first year the meet was held.

Bost led coach Mike Allen’s Salisbury boys to their second straight team title and the fourth in school history, while Misenheimer ran in pain with shin splints in 21:03 and paced coach Amy Wensil’s East girls to the school’s fifth straight win and 12th in 13 years.

For the lanky Bost, it was his second outstanding race in four days. He finished third in a personal-record 15:59.1 in the prestigious Wendy’s Invitational at McAlpine Greenway Park in Charlotte on Saturday.

“At McAlpine Greenway, I think I had a new philosophy of how I wanted to run, to start out a little bit heavier. That was my biggest problem last year, not starting out fast enough,” said Bost. “You can only gain so much speed after you have a bad start. So today I just wanted to go out and try to hold on. I think I did a good job until the last 200 meters.”

Bost was still a little surprised with his time.

“I didn’t think I could beat the 16:37 mark Kevin Crosby set. .... It felt pretty good once I found out it was 16:18,” he said.

Sun Valley’s Crosby, the defending state 3A champion, had set the record on a course that is slightly different from last year in a meet at Dan Nicholas last month.

Bost had run the same course in 17:22 in the county preseason meet in August, when he took a wrong turn late in the race and finished second to West Rowan’s Josh Houghton (17:14).Houghton was second yesterday in 16:54.

A year ago, when the course measured 3.1, Bost won in 17:02 to teammate Darius Hyman’s 17:08, but he didn’t come into the race concentrating on becoming the fourth repeat male winner.

“You have to come here really and just not think about it. If you start thinking about wanting to do it a second or hopefully a third time, it messes with you up here,” said Bost, pointing to his head.

Bost has a shot at being the county champ three straight years, and newcomer Willett can take aim on four years in a row.

The South freshman has come a long way since her first varsity race on the same course in August, when she finished fifth in 22:41. She improved almost three minutes yesterday.

Katie, the daughter of the county’s 800-meter record-holder, Jim Willett (1:53.6 in 1974), was a reluctant runner early in the season, finding cross country to be a lot tougher than middle school track.

“When I first started, I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “I was scared, because every time before a meet I’d get so nervous. I’d feel sick I’d get so nervous. It’s high school and everything’s so much different than middle school, a lot better competition, especially where we’re from.”

After winning every race she’s entered except for a second place at Northwest Cabarrus in the last several weeks, the 14-year-old Willett says, “It’s pretty neat now.”

She knew that Misenheimer, who won in 21:49 in the preseason meet, was the runner to beat and also knew Brooke had been injured all season.

“My plan to come in here was to try my best to stay with her, because she has such good talent and I know she’s been fighting off her shin splits,” said Willett. “I was just going to try to run my hardest.”

Did she think she could beat Misenheimer?

“I don’t think the confidence was there yet,” responded Willett, who went out fast. “I just sprinted the first part around that loop up there (first half mile). I just ran until we got into the woods, thenI fell into my stride for the race.”

Salisbury’s boys won the team title with 34 points to runner-up East’s 39. Rowan was third with 74, followed by West with 85.

The East girls had their narrowest victory since 1993, beating runner-up South 34-45. Salisbury was third with 62, followed by West at 97.

North Rowan also had runners in both races, but did not qualify for team scoring.

The top eight girls and top eight boys earned all-county honors.

The girls team is made up of Willett, Misenheimer, East’s Brittany Fox, Salisbury’s Anna Griffis, South’s Beth-Erin Springer, East’s Crystal Swinson, South’s Cassondra Stirewalt and South’s Katie Morgan.

Bost, Houghton, Salisbury’s Michael Gaus, East’s Jeff Schoch, Salisbury’s Tyler Vanderslice, South’s Brett Howell, Salisbury’s Matt Dennison and Salisbury’s Hyman were the top eight boys.