By Mike London

Salisbury Post

GRANITE QUARRY — East Rowan’s girls edged Carson 119-114 three years ago for a county track & field championship.

Some of those Mustangs who were a factor as freshmen in 2022 are still around, and while they’re not far away from putting on graduation caps and gowns, they have not forgotten what it takes to win an event that is now known as the Robert Steele Rowan County Track and Field Championships to honor the East Rowan graduate who made North Rowan track and field respected statewide.

Savannah Wise is still sprinting for the Mustangs, although she’s a bolt of lightning now compared to when she was running 14s in the 100 meters as a freshman. Jasmyne Brown is still pole-vaulting, although the bar is set about 2 feet higher for her now. Iyanna Lynch Berry is still a factor, although she has evolved and makes more of an impact in running now than in jumping.

And then there’s Sadie Featherstone. She was fifth in the 400 meters as a freshman to help the Mustangs win. She can still run swiftly, and she has blossomed into one of the finest hurdlers the county has ever had.

“We’ve got some special girls who helped us win the county meet as freshmen,” East coach Cris Leckonby said. “Now they’re senior leaders. Just so proud of them. We’ve got a really big group of girls this year, and it’s a really good group that has done everything we could have asked. As coaches, we’ve believed in them and we’ve always stayed positive. If a girl had a seed time that placed her eighth in an event, we told her that she could be sixth, that she could score for us in the county meet. We like to visualize success, and then go out and make it happen. We got a lot of PRs.”

This time the county championship was not a nail-biter for East, which is good in a lot of events. East scored 165 points. Second-place South Rowan was 51 points back at 114.

East racked up solid point totals in the throws (Isis Smith led the way) and got solid points in the 400 and 800 with Lynch Berry. East was solid in the jumps with Browne taking the pole vault and sophomore Lelu Hill winning the long jump.

And then there were the two hurdling events. With 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring, there were 62 points available in the hurdles. East grabbed 38 of them. Featherstone was flying, and her protegé, Miley Carrico, was finishing runner-up in both races.

Featherstone’s 43.57 clocking in the 300 hurdles was a top 10 time for the state this year and was one of the highlights of the meet.

“Miley practices with Sadie, so she’s also improving every day,” Leckonby said. “Sadie’s times were outstanding, especially when you consider she’s out running almost by herself in the 300. She would have been very competitive in the county boys race.”

East got points from three different Carricos — Miley, Maddie and Mackenzie. That was sort of confusing, but it was fun.

East was efficient in the relays, second place in two of them, third in one and winners in the 4×200 where the Mustangs teamed veterans Featherstone and Wise with Maddie Carrico and Kaylee Rigdon.

Featherstone was second in the 200, her fourth event, and was named Sprints MVP, with three golds and one silver.

South’s effort was led by its distance girls, especially freshman Hope Julian, a prodigy who was named Distance MVP. Julian is breaking school records and family records and county records. Julian won the 1600 and the 3200. She anchored the 4×800 winner. She was second in the 800.

South’s Hannah Dellinger, Sadie Siscoe, Railyn Wright and Brinley Patterson won the 4×400.

Third-place Carson had standouts in Rylee Hedrick and Kara Crotts. Crotts was second behind Julian in the 1600 and 3200 and placed third in the 800.

Hedrick won the 400 and placed high in all three jumps.

Salisbury was fourth. Shekiya Woodruff won the 100 and 200 and added a third in the long jump. She also ran on the 4×100 winner.

Kimoa Chawlk won the high jump for the Hornets.

North was strong in the throws, with Allanah McArthur and Krisstyle Stockton going 1-2 in the shot put.

West had several individual standouts.

Skyy Ruben won the discus for the Falcons, while Lylah Dennis won the 800.

Field MVP Jayden Carter won the triple jump, took second in the high jump and was fourth in the long jump.

“We had one MVP (counting the boys and girls meet) from each of the six schools,” Leckonby said. “That wasn’t planned or anything, but it was nice that it worked out that way. Every school in the county has great athletes.”

Girls team scores — East Rowan 165, South Rowan 116, Carson 104, Salisbury 51, West Rowan 49, North Rowan 47

Complete results with 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring.

100 — 1. Shekiya Woodruff (SHS) 12.94, 2. Savannah Wise (ER), 3. Emily Guiton (C), 4. Taliyah Freeman (SHS), 5. Kaylee Rigdon (ER), 6. Torrin Everhart (WR)

200 — 1. Shekiya Woodruff (SHS) 26.21, 2. Sadie Featherstone (ER), 3. Savannah Wise (ER), 4. Kaylee Rigdon (ER), 5. Emily Guiton (C), 6. Taliyah Freeman (S)

400 — 1. Rylee Hedrick (C) 1:03.41, 2. Iyanna Lynch Berry (ER), 3. Sadie Siscoe (SR), 4. Maddie Carrico (ER), 5. Ryla Wagoner (ER), 6. Kayleigh Draughn (SR)

800 — 1. Lylah Dennis (WR) 2:26; 2. Hope Julian (SR), 3. Kara Crotts (C), 4. Iyanna Lynch Berry (ER), 5. Brinley Patterson (SR), 6. Madalynn Gulledge (SR)

1600 — 1. Hope Julian (SR) 5:24, 2. Kara Crotts (C), 3, Madalynn Gulledge (SR), 4, Julia Burleson (C), 5. Karis Miller (C), 6. Kenzie Staton (ER)

3200 — 1. Hope Julian (SR) 11:39.35, 2. Kara Crotts (C), 3. Gracie Hinson (SR), 4. Julia Burleson (C), 5. Karis Miller (C), 6. Makenna Barham (SR)

4×100 — 1. Salisbury 53.18, 2. North, 3. East, 4. Carson, 5. South

4×200 — 1. East 1:47.65 (Maddie Carrico, Sadie Featherstone, Kaylee Rigdon, Savannah Wise), 2. North, 3. South, 4. Carson

4×400 — 1. South 4:26.30 (Hannah Dellinger, Sadie Siscoe, Railyn Wright, Brinley Patterson), 2. East, 3. Carson

4×800 — 1. South 10:48 (Makenna Barham, Gracie Hinson, Madalynn Gulledge, Hope Julian), 2. East, 3. Carson

100 hurdles — 1. Sadie Featherstone (ER) 15.08, 2. Miley Carrico (ER), 3. Ty’Tiana Clemons (NR), 4. Railyn Wright (SR), 5. Hannah Dellinger (SR), 6. Jasmyne Allen (NR)

300  hurdles — 1. Sadie Featherstone (ER) 43.57, 2. Miley Carrico (ER), 3. Ty’Tiana Clemons (NR), 4. Railyn Wright (SR), 5. Mackenzie Carrico (ER), 6. Hannah Dellinger (SR)

Shot put — 1. Allanah McArthur (NR) 34-9, 2. Krisstyle Stockton (NR), 3. Skyy Ruben, 4. Aniyah Marshall (ER), 5. Isis Smith, (ER), 6. Nevaeh McCullough (WR)

Discus — 1. Skyy Ruben (WR) 82-2, 2. Isis Smith (ER), 3. Ava Quick (ER), 4. Clancy Street (SR), 5. Aniyah Marshall (ER), 6. Makenna Jones (SR)

High jump — 1. Kimora Chawlk (SHS) 5-2, 2. Jayden Carter (WR), 3. Cadi Joyner (C), 4. Rylee Hedrick (C), 5. Brinley Patterson (SR), 6. Kayleigh Draughn (SR)

Triple jump — 1. Jayden Carter (WR) 35-10, 2. Rylee Hedrick (C), 3. Adyson Howard (SR), 4. Brinley Patterson (SR), 5. Anisten Cook (ER), 8. Ellie Lentz (ER)

Long jump — 1. Lelu Hill (ER) 16-8.5, 2. Rylee Hedrick (C), 3. Shekiya Woodruff (SHS), 4. Jayden Carter (WR), 5. Anisten Cook (ER), 6. Lexi Kyle (ER)

Pole vault — 1. Jasmyne Brown (ER) 8-6, 2. Renna Linn (C), 3. Adyson Howard (SR)