High school girls track: Mustangs nip Carson for first title since 2015

Published 11:20 pm Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Staff report

GRANITE QUARRY — There were tremendous individual performances in Wednesday’s Rowan County Track and Field Championships.

Carson sprinter Aliayah White, North Rowan sophomores Aniya Brown and Brittany Ellis and Salisbury runner Sutton Webb all turned in multiple wins, but it was East Rowan’s depth that won the day.

It was the first county win for the Mustangs since 2015.

East scored 119 points to dethrone Carson which has ruled the county meet since 2017. The Cougars totaled 114.

Next in line were South Rowan (90), North Rowan (81), Salisbury (68) and West Rowan (59).

East led the Cougars 109-108 going into the final event of the day — the 4×400. East’s 4×400 unit of Jasmyne Brown, Sadie Featherstone, Peyton Whicker and Meredith Bonner won to secure victory. East got 10 points for that win. Carson got six for third.

Bonner had a terrific day for the champs. She ran on a fourth-place 4×800 team to start the day. She won the 3200 with a PR 13:26 and was second in the 1600.

East only got four points for the two throwing events, but made up for it with 39 in the jumps.

A pivotal event was the pole vault, where East had the only entries. Jasmyne Brown won by clearing 6 feet, 6 inches, while Jadyn Featherstone got over the bar at 6 feet. In a 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring system that meant 18 points, while none of the other teams scored.  That was a huge swing.

Iyanna Berry Lynch logged a second for East in the triple jump, Whicker was second in the 300 hurdles, and East had seconds in the 4×100 and 4×200.

White swept the sprints for the Cougars and added six more points with third place in the high jump. Zoe Holbrook won the long jump and placed high in the 100 hurdles and triple jump.

Macy Miller won the high jump for South, and Bethany Rymer placed high in all the distance events.

North was missing some key athletes, but won the 4×200 and got wins from Aniya Brown in the triple jump, 100 hurdes and 300 hurdles (48. 40, a top-25 in the state time), while Ellis won the discus and shot put.

Webb won the 800 and 1600 for the Hornets, who also took the 4×100.

West won the 4×800 that opened the day.