By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com
Katherine Shields always seems to win for the Salisbury girls cross country team.
Except at the Central Carolina Conference meet.
For the second consecutive year, twin sister Emily Shields pulled the mild upset, nipping Katherine and winning the individual title Tuesday at Dan Nicholas Park.
“She always beats me in this race,” Katherine said with a smile.
Emily didn’t seem to mind as long as it was all in the family.
She finished with a time of 19:57, three seconds better than Katherine.
The Salisbury family found itself at the top as well, winning the overall championship. The Hornets had 35 points, six fewer than Central Davidson.
After the race, Emily said, “I expected one of us to win.”
So did everyone else. But they were expecting the other Shields.
“Katherine is usually the one who finishes first,” Hornets coach Meagan Robinson said. “She was actually a little sick. She had a scratchy throat.”
Katherine didn’t use that as an excuse. It was Emily’s resilience that paid dividends in this one.
“Usually, I have dropped her by the two mile,” Katherine said. “I got in my head that if I don’t get away from her, she’s going to beat me. With 400 meters, she passed me.”
“And I gradually got farther ahead,” Emily said.
While those two battled for first, Robinson praised the effort of Karen Presnell, who finished third.
“Karen Presnell showed up today,” Robinson said. “She was really good. She gained on four or five people right there at the end.”
Presnell ran a 20:34.
Robinson was pleased with the times, especially the ones from the twins.
“Both were trying to break 20 minutes,” she said.
–
The top 12 finishers in Tuesday’s race were named all-conference.
Central Davidson and West Davidson each had four all-conference runners, but their teams couldn’t overcome the top three Hornet finishes.
West Davidson was third with 55 points, followed by East Davidson with 99 and Lexington with 114. Thomasville didn’t compete in the meet.
Central placed Emily Mills and Alyson Brenner, the fourth- and fifth-place finishers, along with Krissy Grubbs and Laura Fullbright.
West Davidson placed sixth-place runner Olivia Myers, Amber Brane, Kendra Eller and Kia McElvan.
East Davidson placed Haley Grimsley.