The prep cross country notebook . . .
South Rowan freshman Katie Willett captured the first victory of her high school career in
impressive fashion against West Forsyth at South on Wednesday.
Willett ran her 3.1-mile home course in 20
minutes, 43 seconds, her best time of the season.
"That's pretty good," said coach Dwayne
Fink of South. "What I thought was so incredible was that she was over a minute ahead
of the second-place girl from West Forsyth. Basically, she ran the whole race by
herself."
West Forsyth's Kathryn Jenkins finished 1:09
behind Willett in 21:52.
West Forsyth still won the dual meet with a score
of 23 to South's 38, but the Raiders were competitive. Beth-Erin Springer was fourth in
22:14, Katie Morgan 11th in 23:54, Cassondra Stirewalt 14th in 24:24 and Amina Khan 20th
in 27:30.
South's boys also made a strong showing, losing to
the Titans 23-34. The Raiders were led by sophomore Brett Howell, who took second in
17:47.
"It's probably the strongest we've run
against them in several years," said Fink. "We're very, very pleased. Brett just
continues to finish real strong. We expect him with his work ethic to get better and
better. Just being a sophomore, he's still a relatively young runner. He's just trying to
perfect his pacing so he can get the perfect race. Regardless of the course, this year
he's been falling between 17 and 18 (minutes)."
West Forsyth's Brad Morgan was the individual
winner in 17:25.
South's other leaders were Matt Benfield, fifth in
19:19; Robbie Moore, sixth in 19:22; Noah Burgess, ninth in 19:54; Chris Hager, 13th in
20:09; and Russell Perry, 14th in 20:11.
The Hornets, No. 2 in the state 2A meet last fall,
should be one of the favorites again after the addition of German exchange student Michael
Gaus.
Gaus, who doesn't turn 16 until Oct. 30, ran in
his first American cross country race on Thursday at Ledford, finishing fifth with a time
of 16:46 over Ledford's fast course that is supposed to be 3.1 miles.
Salisbury's David Bost was first in 16:26, and
teammate Tyler Vanderslice fourth in 16:45, one second ahead of Gaus.
Coach Mike Allen's defending Central Carolina
Conference champions won with 25 points to 50 for Ledford and 66 for East Davidson.
"It definitely helps us," said Allen of
Gaus, who had practiced with his new teammates the previous six school days plus last
weekend. "It helps us big time. It helps us motivationally. It helps us
training-wise. There's another body out there to push."
Allen wasn't surprised at Gaus' finish and expects
him to do even better in future meets.
"I think he can maybe get as good as David
(Bost, defending county champion) and maybe outrun David. I don't know how much training
he did prior to coming over," said Allen.
Gaus told his coach he has competed in 5,000- and
10,000 meter races in Germany and that he has run every event from 1,000 meters up to the
10K.
"He told me his special event was the
steeplechase (3,000 meters over barriers and water). He's physically strong, but he's got
surprising speed. In training, he's outkicked people coming in," pointed out Allen.
Salisbury's other leaders were Darius Hyman and
Matt Dennison with times of 17:35 and 17:39, respectively. That put the Hornets' top five
runners with 1:13 of each other, the kind of balance a state championship contender needs.
"Hyman's time is misleading. Darius fell down
twice on the course. Both his knees are scraped up and his thighs are all scraped up. I'll
hand it to him. He got up and kept going," said Allen.
Salisbury's girls, coached by Doris Rowe, won with
32 points for their best showing of the season. Perennially strong Ledford was second with
43, followed by East Davidson with 46.
Anna Griffis led Salisbury with a second-place
finish in 21:15, followed by teammate Maria Mendez, third at 22:42.
Other Salisbury leaders were Katie Troxler, eighth
in 24:16; Manita Cole, ninth in 24:31; and Anna Cunningham, 10th in 24:43.
Ledford's Carly Matthews was the winner in 22:56.
Salisbury's runners were originally scheduled to
compete in today's Great American Cross Country Festival at McAlpine Park in Charlotte,
but instead went to the Lowe's Invitational, which was held this morning at Tanglewood
Park.
"We know we are going to have some good
competition, because it's primarily 4A," said Allen before the meet.
The Mustangs were slated to compete in the Great
American Cross Country Festival in Charlotte today.
McAlpine will seem like a home course for coach
Rick Roseman's boys and coach Amy Wensil's girls by the end of the season. The South
Piedmont Conference preseason meet was held on the 3.1-mile course. East will also compete
at McAlpine in the Wendy's Invitational on Oct. 2 and the SPC meet on Oct. 26. East is
also hoping to be in the state 3A meet at the same site Nov. 13.
The Falcons will be back in action on Tuesday in
their second home meet of the season.
Coach Mike Young's West boys and coach Kent
Houghton's West girls will host Sun Valley and Kannapolis A.L. Brown.
The Cavaliers, coached by Susan Kobbe, will host
their second meet of the season on Thursday against Salisbury, Ledford and High Point
Central.
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The cross country notebook regularly appears on
Fridays. |
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