By Ryan Bisesi

rbisesi@salisburypost.com
GRANITE QUARRY — There were no ties in any event at the NPC girls track championship Tuesday.
Yet a glance at the team scores at the end of the day showed that somehow East Rowan and West Rowan were able to call themselves winners.
East and West each wound up with 158.25 points at the NPC championship, a quandary that both squads had to accept.
“Nobody wants to tie,” West coach Brittany Chester said. “But East Rowan is a great team and it still goes down as champions on the banner.”
A four-way tie for sixth in the high jump gave West and East a quarter of a point and Carson half a point early on. The Falcons won the final two events, the 3200 and the 4×400 relay to force a draw.
“How often does that happen?” East coach Lu Gamewell said. “We had a lot of two-through-five finishes. Our depth really came through for us.”
West was led by Khalia Hall and distance MVP Rebecca Parker. Hall won the long jump and the 100-meter run. Parker took the 1600, 3200 and led a second-place 4×800 relay.
“My mile time was a personal best so I was pretty happy with that,” Parker said. “I’m proud of the team for the hard work we did.”
East freshman Shenique Pharr jumped 32 feet, 2.5 inches to win the triple jump after placing fourth in the long jump. Pharr was named field events MVP in her first conference championship.
“It’s a good feeling,” Pharr said. “To be a freshman and get this is great.”
The Mustangs benefitted from a first-place finish from Brittany Small in the high jump.
The Falcons missed Hannah Allison who sat out with a leg injury. Allison’s efforts in the 4×800, 1600 and 800 were missed but West still provided a solid showing.
West’s Hannah Landy and Shay Steele finished 1-2 in the 400. The Falcons took the 4×400 relay (Landy, Brienna Owens, Alexis Kemp, Steele) in 4:29. Owens won the 800 run, edging East’s Faith Blume by five seconds.
East got finishes 3-5 in the 400 from Haley Lyerly, Brittany Small and Shelby Lowe. Blume was runner up in the 1600 and East’s Ashley Mayhew was second in the 3200.
“It was a great team effort,” Gamewell said. “Our 4×100 team finished third and beat West, which they didn’t do last week. That was big.”
South Rowan’s Dakotah Lambert was sprint MVP with wins in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. Lambert was also second in the pole vault.
Carson was third with 94.5 points. The Cougars won the 4×100 relay and had Jesse Troutman win the pole vault. Carson’s Paris Parks was second in the 100 and Akia West placed fourth.