North Stanly’s girls have never been a cross country power before, but coach Teresa Davis’ Comets may be one of the teams to watch in the 2A Midwest Regional at Greensboro’s Hagan Stone Park on Saturday, Oct. 23.

The Comets, who won their first Stanly County title last year, captured their first Central Carolina Conference crown at Ledford on Tuesday, when North Stanly scored 37 points to runner-up Salisbury’s 46.

Davis has a young team which has been battling injuries. Sophomores Jessica Hayes and Krystal Noll have both been slowed down by stress fractures.

Hayes ran in only her third meet of the season, finishing third in 21:34 to lead the Comets.

“She hurt her knee in track season. She was hurt in the state track meet. She ran on that relay team that won the state. She reinjured it in the summertime,” said Davis.

Hayes, Noll, Emily Coley and Miranda Thomas won the 3200 relay in 10:33.72 in the state 2A meet in Raleigh last May. Hayes, Noll and Coley, a junior, were wearing beautiful state championship rings on Tuesday.

Hayes, the Midwest Regional champion in both the 800 and 1600 last spring, also finished third in the state in the 1600 with a time of 5:38.96, despite the knee injury.

Hayes, senior Mary Stallings and Krystal Noll finished 3-4-5 in the CCC to lead the Comets, while freshman Rachel Noll and Coley took ninth and 16, respectively.

“Krystal Noll’s been out for two meets. She had a stress fracture just below the knee. She just came back this week. We didn’t decide until this morning that she was running,” said Davis.

Stallings, a basketball player out for cross country for the first time, has strengthened the team.

“She ran her best time (22:03) today. She’s a senior: She had to take charge,” said the coach.

“Rachel Noll, Krystal’s sister, is a freshman. She’s been strong all year long. She’s going to be tough. ... Coley’s a good leader. She did what she had to do today to get the job done,” added Davis, a former star sprinter at North Stanly.

Coach Doris Rowe’s Salisbury girls didn’t win, but she and her runners were still pleased with their performance.

Freshman Anna Griffis won the individual champion in 20:15, but she wasn’t the only reason Salisbury gave North Stanly a good race.

“We had five runners under 24 minutes. That’s been our goal since three weeks into the season,” said Rowe. “It took us awhile, but we finally did it, and everyone’s happy about it.”

Freshman Maria Mendez, eighth in 22:28, was Salisbury’s No. 2 runner. She joined Griffis on the all-CCC team, as did senior Manita Cole, 10th in 23:10.

Steady senior Katie Troxler just missed all-CCC, taking 12th in 23:30, and sophomore Anna Cunningham was 15th in 23:56.

Ledford officials say their course is 3.1 miles, but some observers think it’s slightly shorter, since times are much faster that on other courses.

Griffis, for example, ran the 3.05-mile Dan Nicholas Park course in 21:13 in the recent Rowan County meet. She had run a 21:15 at Ledford in September. She improved by a whole minute Tuesday on the same course, which was muddy this time.

“I would like to at least keep this time I had today and hopefully improve on it, ” said Griffis of her goals for the rest of the season. “My goal for the year was to break 20, and so far I haven’t been able to do that except on a short course.”

Salisbury’s boys easily won their third straight conference title, and junior David Bost was the individual champion with a time of 16:03.

The Hornets not only placed Bost, Michael Gaus, Tyler Vanderslice, Matt Dennison, Darius Hyman and Rodney Krider on the all-conference team, but Nirav Patel, AdamPannell, Jacob Melton, Chris Goodman, JustinLeonard, Ryan Lesley and Steve Eldridge also placed in the top 35. Those seven Hornets would have scored points for some of the other teams.

Salisbury has added an invitational meet at Clemson University to its schedule for Saturday.

Adam Black led North’s boys, finishing 27th in 20:10, while Bobby Hundley was 34th in 21:00.

For the Cavalier girls, Amanda Wilson was 31st in 27:29.

Coach Rick Roseman’s East boys won a three-team meet at Dan Nicholas Park on Tuesday, scoring 25 points to Piedmont’s 56 and West Rowan’s 57.

Jeff Schoch led East, finishing second in 17:38. Other leaders for the Mustangs were Phillip Johnson, third in 18:18; Joshua Pinyan, fifth in 18:46; Brent Dorris, seventh in 18:54; Trey Ledbetter, eighth in 19:15; David Cline, ninth in 19:26; and Greg Simpson, 10th in 19:32. East took seven of the top 10 spots.

Results from the girls meet were not available.

Josh Houghton of the Falcons was the individual winner with a time of 17:21 over the 3.05-mile course at Dan Nicholas.

Teammate Jonathan Williams placed fourth in 18:45.

Other West leaders were Scott Johnson, 20th in 20:51; Brian Schmitt, 25th in 22:39; and Mark Drinkard, 26th in 23:22.

Katie Willett of the South girls continued her outstanding season in a meet at Davie County on Wednesday. The freshman won with a time of 19:06 over a 3-mile layout.

“It was significant, because it’s the first time she had raced against the No. 1 girl from R.J. Reynolds (Ginger Wheeler), the preseason conference favorite,” said coach Dwayne Fink of South.

“Katie led the first two miles, then the girl passed her by about 20 yards. When they came out of the woods, Katie was back in front,” he added.

Beth-Erin Springer (eighth in 21:08), Katie Morgan (11th in 22:08), Cassondra Stirewalt (13th in 22:15) and Ahmina Khan (27th in 25:59) were South’s other runners.

R.J. Reynolds led the way in team scoring, while South finished second and Davie third.

Reynolds’ boys also won with 23 points to South’s 44 and Davie’s 58.

Brett Howell paced South with a second-place time of 16:32. Other leaders for the Raiders were Matt Benfield, eighth in 18:14; Robbie Moore, 10th in 18:22; Russell Perry, 11th in 18:32; and Chris Hager, 13th in 18:41.

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