By Bret Strelow
Salisbury Post
GRANITE QUARRY ó Olivia Jacobs joined the South Rowan cross country team four years ago as a favor to good friend Amy Hinshaw.

Hinshaw didn’t have much fun.

Jacobs enjoyed the challenge, and she’ll begin another four-year journey when she enrolls at Catawba this fall.

Jacobs, who has signed to run cross country for the Indians, won three distance races Wednesday in her final Rowan County Track Meet.

A stellar career started with a simple request from Hinshaw.

“She ended up quitting, and I ended up being pretty good at it,” Jacobs said with a laugh. “I decided to stick with it. All the time, she tells me I have her to thank for all my success.”

Jacobs won the Rowan County Cross Country Meet in each of her final two seasons, and she qualified for the states twice. She competed three times at the state indoor track championships and has made two appearances at the state outdoor meet.

South won consecutive county track meets before finishing as the runner-up to Salisbury last year, and Jacobs led the Raiders to another second-place showing yesterday.

She took first place in the 1,600 meters for the fourth time, then became a repeat winner in the 800 (2:29.86) and 3,200 (13:03).

Salisbury’s Katherine Shields kept pace for the first three laps of the mile, and Jacobs won with a time of 5:42.25. Shields crossed the line nine seconds later.

“I was nervous at first because I was scared I was going to jinx myself since I’ve won it before,” Jacobs said.

“I did strategy this time and stayed right with her because I knew I had two more races. I just waited for the last lap to give what I had left.”

Jacobs, named the meet’s distance MVP for the third straight year, joined an elite list of four-time winners that includes standouts such as LaTasha Pharr and Rebekah Frick.

Pharr, a North Rowan freshman in 1998, won the long jump, triple jump and 100-meter hurdles at the county meet in each of her four high school seasons.

Frick, an East Rowan freshman in 1991, swept the 1,600 and 3,200 all four years.

Jacobs won the mile with a time of 5:55 as a freshman in 2005 and claimed first with a 5:51 as a sophomore. She clocked in at exactly 6:00 last year and completed a successful title defense Wednesday.

“When I won it my freshman year, one of my coaches told me that I had to make sure I won it every year, that it was my race,” Jacobs said. “I’ve always kept that in my head every year, that it was my race and I had to keep it that way.”

Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com.