By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

GRANITE  QUARRY — East Rowan cross country runner Sadie Featherstone made quite a jump as a junior.

It’s hoops season now so to put it in basketball terms, she went from making layups to dunking backwards.

Featherstone was 21st in the Rowan County Championships as a freshman, barely breaking 25 minutes and offering little evidence of future stardom.

But her work ethic moved her up to fourth place in the county meet as a sophomore.

As a junior, she finished her surprise climb to the top at Dan Nicholas Park, winning in 21:28.

She is the Rowan County champion and the Post’s Female Runner of the Year for 2023.

“She was the underdog for a long time and that helped fuel her,” East coach Cris Leckonby said. “She liked the challenge and liked surprising people. She started getting results and I got her to start believing in herself. She started pushing herself harder in practice and made really significant progress As the season went on, she got mentally tougher and more confident.”

East art teacher Meredith Abramson was a secret weapon. Her yoga sessions helped the Mustangs avoid injuries.

A hurdler and sprinter in track and field, Featherstone is not a standard distance runner. If it’s even with 200 meters to go, she can out-kick a lot of people. That’s her other secret weapon.

While the county meet is the race that attracts the most attention, one race doesn’t make an entire season.

Featherstone backed up her county championship with a third-place finish, while leading all Rowan runners in the South Piedmont Conference Championships.

Then Featherstone had the chance to show everyone what she was made of in the regional meet. She had to perform well enough in the regional to qualify for the state, and her local accomplishments would have lost some of luster if she had failed to qualify for the big stage in Kernersville, the final event of the season.

But at the regional, Featherstone encountered every runner’s worst nightmare — a stomach virus. South Rowan coach Rebekah Frick Julian could see she was in distress before the race, and was almost moved to tears herself.

“My stomach hurt bad,” Featherstone said. “I was afraid, nervous, but I’d come too far not to try to qualify.”

Somehow she ran, although a picture that was taken of her during the final mile made it look like she might fall over in agony at any second. Her time was about a minute off her usual standard, but under the circumstances, what she did showed amazing fortitude. She qualified for state. On the last day of the season, she was out there on the course in Kernersville, supported by coaches and teammates, including her sister, Jadyn, an all-county senior.

“It was fun when I got to state and I could just enjoy the race without being so nervous,” Featherstone said.

Carson junior Emily Landaverde finished 15 seconds behind Featherstone in the Rowan County Championships and was behind her in the South Piedmont Conference Championships, but Landaverde was fresher at the end of the season and finished ahead of Featherstone at the regional and state, although neither of the girls was a big factor yet at the state level.

So next fall is going to be competitive, and Featherstone will no longer be the underdog. She won’t have the luxury of sneaking up on the field next season.

That’s OK with Leckonby.

“She reached her goals this year, but she’s the kind of girl who is going to set new goals,” Leckonby said. “I know she wasn’t completely happy with her last two races, so she’s already making plans for next season. I’m super proud of what she did and excited to see what she’s going to do next.”