From staff reports

East Rowan’s Jaden Sprinkle shot 74 for medalist honors in the South Piedmont Conference Championships held on Monday at the Country Club of Salisbury.

Sprinkle won in dramatic fashion, with a birdie on the final hole to win by one shot.

East’s Landon Merrell, the Rowan County champion, finished third with a 76. Dalton Heglar’s 93 and Gavin Walker’s 112 were enough to get East fourth place in the tournament at 355.

Northwest Cabarrus shot 320 to edge Lake Norman Charter, which had three players with 79s, by one stroke.

West Rowan shot 334 for third place. Gage Ludwick shot 80 to lead the Falcons. Other scorers for West were McGwire Owen (83), Justin Cole (84) and Charlie Young (87).

Other top scores from Rowan County players were 85s by South Rowan’s Jackson Black and Carson’s Cade Cranfield. Carson’s Harrison McCall shot 87.

The individual winner for the season was Northwest Cabarrus’ Talan Harrison, who shot 75 for tournament runner-up honors on Monday. Harrison topped Merrell by four shots in the season standings.

Sprinkle tied for fifth for the season. Owen was ninth, Black was 10th, and Cranfield was 11th.

Carson finished fifth in the tournament at 367, but held on to fourth in the season standings.

South shot 368, Concord shot 373, and Central Cabarrus shot 374.

Lake Norman Charter, Northwest Cabarrus, West Rowan and Carson advanced their teams to the regional, and they’ll be joined by the top individuals from non-qualifying teams such as Sprinkle, Merrell, Black and Central Cabarrus’ Ryan Masterton, who shot 76 on Monday.

Next for SPC golfers is the 3A Midwest Regional, which also will be held at the Country Club of Salisbury.

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The Central Carolina Conference Championships will be held at Crescent on Wednesday.

ACC greats in town

The ABC Upward! spring high school programs has brought a number of former ACC basketball standouts to Rowan County.

Al Wood (UNC) and Gerald Henderson (Duke) spoke at North Rowan on Monday morning, while Wood and Gene Banks (Duke) spoke at Salisbury High and Henderson Independent on Monday afternoon.

Wood and Ralph Sampson (Virginia), a three-time college player of the year, will speak at Carson at 9 a.m. today. After lunch at The Smoke Pit, Wood, Banks, Henderson and Sampson are all scheduled for East Rowan this afternoon at 1:15 p.m.

Wood and Banks are scheduled for breakfast at Hendrix on Highway 70 on Wednesday and will speak at West Rowan at 9 a.m.  After lunch at China Grove Family House Restaurant, Wood and Henderson will speak at South Rowan at 1:15 p.m.

On Thursday, Wood and former NFL receiver Joe Horn will be at Breakfast Time in Salisbury before speaking at Cabarrus Opportunity at 10 a.m. They’ll go on the Chop House 101 in Kannapolis for lunch, and will speak at A.L. Brown  at 2:15 p.m.

Local golf

Terrol Kendall made a recent hole-in-one at McCanless.

Kendall aced the 125-yard No. 3 hole with an 8-iron.

He was playing with Kris Hokanson, Gilbert Sprinkle, Gene Seaford and Jim Fero as part of the “Quarter Group.”

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Great weather led to a great turnout for McCanless Couples golf on Sunday.

In a Captain’s Choice event, the first place team was Robin Bradshaw, Allen Terry and P-Daber.

College golf

NC Hall of Fame

HS football

HS track and field

The CCC Championships are set for May 2 at South Davidson, while the SPC Championships will be held at East Rowan on May 4.

HS boys tennis

The NCHSAA released the pairings for the dual team state playoffs on Monday.

First-round games are scheduled for Wednesday.

Salisbury is seeded second in 2A and will be at home against 15th-seeded Polk County (11-5).

South Rowan is seeded 12th in 3A and will travel to Winston-Salem to play No. 5 seed Atkins.

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In Monday’s SPC Tournament in Concord, Carson qualified James Anderson in singles and the Karson Sloop/Noah Bardinas doubles team for the 3A Midwest Regional. East Rowan qualified the doubles team of Ryan Brady/Gavin McDaniel.

South Rowan qualifiers were Joey Carracio, Richard Gould, Noah Steedley and Grayson Steedley.

Legion softball

Sign-ups for the Rowan County Lady Legion softball team will be held on Sunday, May 1, at  5 p.m. at the East Rowan softball field. This will be for both the Senior and Junior teams. This is a sign-up and meeting only.