Brittany Fox knew she was winning the race, but the East Rowan junior didn’t realize that she was dominating the field in the Northwest Cabarrus Classic Invitational last Tuesday.

“I didn’t know how far I was ahead,” said Fox, who passed injured teammate Brooke Misenheimer after the mile mark and fought the humidity and hills to win the 3.1-mile race in 23:09, one minute ahead of South Rowan freshman Katie Willett.

“When I was going around and coming down the last hill, I looked back and nobody was out there,” said Fox, who was also the top finisher from Rowan County in an invitational meet at Statesville the week before, when she finished third.

Misenheimer and Fox were running 1-2 when Fox made her move to take the lead.

“I went ahead and sprinted up the hill. That’s when I could tell she was having trouble with her shin splints,” said Fox.

Misenheimer, in pain during and after the race, slowed down and finished with teammate Crystal Swinson in 29:15.

“We need to get healthy. We need Brooke, and we need Lora (Williams) back in there,” said Fox of her injured teammates. Williams also ran in the meet with a sore hamstring.

Fox knows Misenheimer is the favorite to win the Rowan County and South Piedmont Conference titles, and the junior is concentrating mainly on improving her times.

“My goal is to get down in the 20s this year, and I think I’m going to be able to — maybe 20:30 this year, then my senior year down in the 19s. ... I want to take first or second in the county and first or second in the conference,” said Fox.

She made all-county (third place) and all-conference (fourth) as a sophomore.

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“Brooke’s going to try to rest it and do some other workouts (like swimming) and see if she can’t get them (shin splints) healed. It’s a tough break for her, but I think she’ll keep working through it,” said Wensil.

“Lora was hurting with her hamstring. It was still tight, but she didn’t have as much pain as she’s been having. The good thing is she’s learning to stretch and do warmups and cooldowns,” said Wensil.

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TAKING AIM: Coach Rick Roseman of the East boys knew coming into the season that defending state 3A champ Sun Valley was the team to beat in the SPC, so it was no surprise that the Spartans won at Northwest with 30 points. Northwest was second with 55, followed by East with 73.

“We are hoping that we can bump Northwest off in the next two months,” he said. “We have a young team, one of the hardest working groups I’ve been around in 14 years. They’re not going to do anything but get better.”

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SCHOCH’S TIMES: Junior Jeff Schoch, the leader for East’s boys last year and this year, was Rowan County’s highest finisher on Tuesday, when he took third place in 18:48.

Schoch, all-county and all-SPC as a sophomore, says he isn’t concerned with where he finishes, only with his times.

“I just want to drop my times. If I drop my times 30 seconds or whatever, and I still take third or fourth in the county, that’s fine. That means everybody else has to improve too.”

Schoch was third in the county meet last year with a time of 17:08.1 at Dan Nicholas Park.

“It’s probably one of my best races. I wouldn’t put it No. 1, but it would be one of the top couple of races,” said Schoch.“I just wanted to run strong with all these hills, because I’ve heard about how hilly this course is.”

Coach Roseman said of Schoch, “He had an impressive race. He gets the miles in. He’s proven that hard work pays off.”

Cassondra Stirewalt of South Rowan is enjoying her senior season. It’s the first time in three years South has had the required five runners to be eligible for team scoring.

“You feel motivated. If you do bad, you know you’ll not only run yourself down, but you’ll run other people down also,” she said.

With freshman Katie Willett taking second place at Northwest and sophomore Beth-Erin Springer finishing ninth, the Raiders led Rowan teams in the meet by taking third place. East Rowan and West Rowan finished fourth and seventh, respectively.

“I can’t believe it. ... That is amazing. That hasn’t happened in what, a decade maybe? Even though I didn’t do so good today, that really encourages me. Maybe it will happen again,” said Stirewalt, who made all-county last year.

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IMPROVEMENT: Sophomore Brett Howell has handled the pressure of being South’s top runner for two seasons.

“Brett’s continued to improve his last couple of meets. He’s beaten some runners that he didn’t last year,” said coach Dwayne Fink after Howell finished sixth in 19:23 at Northwest.

“Overall, we’re pleased,” said Fink, whose Raiders were fifth out of eight teams. “This course is kind of tough to gauge progress on. Knowing that some of the top runners in the area are here and seeing what kind of times they ran, I know it is a tough course.

“I look forward to seeing how we match up in the (Central Piedmont) conference. I think this will be the strongest year we’ve had in several years,” added Fink.

Sophomore Lauren Duffy has not only been the West Rowan girls’ leader in every meet, but she plays No. 1 singles and doubles for the Falcons in tennis.

Her weekly schedule?

“Monday tennis, Tuesday cross county, Wednesday tennis, Thursday cross country, Friday split practices,” answered the busy sophomore.

Duffy ran eighth-grade track, but said she didn’t really get serious about running until going out for the West team as a freshman last year.

Brother Chris, a senior, was already running for the West boys.

“I just came out here. Since he was doing it, I went along with it,’ she said.

Lauren added that her father got her started running during a Sunday morning family run when she was in the sixth grade.

Despite playing in two tennis matches the previous week, she found time to run 22 miles.

As for a young West team that has 14 members, she said, “We’re starting off a little rocky, but we’re getting there.”

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MAKING PROGRESS: West Rowan’s boys finished fourth at Northwest, but coach Mike Young can see his young team making progress.

West’s leader, senior Josh Houghton, didn’t have his best race, finishing seventh in 19:43, but it’s the first time all season Houghton hasn’t been near the front.

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