By Ryan Bisesi
rbisesi@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY – Jacob Fink won the pre-county cross country meet Wednesday in 16:58 in his first race of the season at Dan Nicholas Park.
“I’m pretty happy about the win because that was my main goal,” Fink said. “This is by far my best time at Dan Nicholas.”
On a humid day, the usually slow course granted an impressive time for the Carson senior, whose personal best at a 5K is 16:44. Fink says he’s considering the Coast Guard after high school although UNC Asheville likes his running talents. Fink runs the 1600 and 3200 meter runs in outdoor track.
“He had a plan that he stuck to today,” Carson coach Dwyane Fink said. “He’s in really good shape endurance-wise. You’re always glad as a coach when a guy’s been training as hard as him and it pays off for him.”
East Rowan had the best team score with a 27. Carson was second (36 points) while West Rowan placed third (90). East sophomore Conor Honeycutt was second overall in 17:09 and teammate Cal Meyers finished third in 17:13. Carson’s Kyle Gillis (17:16) was fourth. East coach Rick Roseman said those four could be interchangeable all year.
“We’re still figuring out where everybody needs to be,” East coach Rick Roseman said. “We got great kids that work hard. I think we and Carson should be very strong.”
The Mustangs had five top-ten finishes, including Jason Basso (fifth, 17:34), Graham Lyerly (eighth, 18:09), Chance Brown (ninth, 18:09) and Jason Troutman (10th, 18:13). Nick Thornton (13th, 18:27) and Daniel Sherer (14th, 18:47) had solid finishes for Carson.
“Carson matches up front very well,” Roseman said. “The difference today was we had more depth down the stretch.”
Carson’s Zachary Marchinko placed sixth in 17:48. West Rowan’s Cody McNeely was seventh in 18 minutes flat. South Rowan was fourth with 111 points while Salisbury (144) and North Rowan (161) rounded out the field.
The County meet is set for Sept. 26 at Dan Nicholas.