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Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Carson Aman of Carson competes in the long jump at the Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Tristen McBride of Carson competes in the shot put at the Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

Rowan County Track and Field Championships at East Rowan High School. Photo credit: Sean Meyers

By Mike London
[email protected]

GRANITE QUARRY – The journey to Carson County’s first championship in boys track and field was a marathon, but now the Cougars have raced to back-to-back titles.

Carson won the Robert Steele Memorial Rowan County Track Meet on Thursday with 158 points. Salisbury was second with 120, of which 92 came from sprints and relays. They were followed by the East (88), the West (80), the North (58) and the South (49).

“Carson had never won this even until last year, so two in a row feels really good,” Carson head coach Jonathan Lowe said. “We had an incredible effort from a lot of people, and this is just a credit to the great multi-sport athletes we have in Carson.”

Lowe and assistant coach Zachary Marchinko had studied the results throughout the track season and were sure it would come down to Carson and Salisbury.

“We thought it would be a five-point game that could go either way,” Lowe said. “Salisbury has a group of guys who can run at full speed, but what we have is depth. Something I learned from coach Rick Roseman when he competed at East Rowan was that you win big meets like this by having three guys in each event. We were almost able to do it today. We had three in everything except the hurdles, and we had two guys in them.”

Carson’s depth prevailed. The Cougars scored across the board, in prints, hurdles, jumps, relays, throws and especially in distance, where Marchinko’s team (they were third in 3A in cross country) accounted for 54 of Carson’s points.

The Cougars won more than they thought possible because there were surprises, like Tristen McBride finishing second in both throws with a huge 16 points. The soccer star recorded PRs at both events.

“Tristen is a player,” Lowe said.

Damir Miller won the high jump for Carson, clearing the bar at 6 feet, 2 inches.

Carson Aman didn’t have as surprising a meet as last spring, when he won three events and propelled the Cougars to the championship, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t everywhere: second in the high jump, third in the triple and long jump and fourth in 400. He added 24 points.

The distance guys did what they were expected to do.

The Cougars ran 1-3-4 in the 800 for 20 points. Bricen Burleson won the event, while Connor Price and James Anderson placed.

Carson went 2-3-4 in the 3200 with Eric Gillis, Jorge-Clemente Garcia and Burleson trailing South’s Eli Julian’s record.

In the 1600, the Cougars were 2-3-5, with Burleson, Gillis and Clemente-Garcia placing.

“As a head football coach, I have a good relationship with our football guys and my job as an athletic trainer is to get them on the field,” Lowe said. “But Marchinko brings great brainpower to this team, and his distance players were incredible.”

Another key to Carson’s victory was freshman sprinter Ayden Blevins. He was second in the 100 and helped Carson finish second in the 4×100 and third in the 4×200.

“He’s a kid who only did track this year,” Lowe said. “He preached to some people at the relays. He has a chance to be one of the best sprinters Carson has ever had.”

Salisbury’s effort was led by Deuce Walker, a Division I football recruit headed to Georgia State. He had a 4 out of 4 day.

Walker, MVP of the Sprints, won the 100 in 11.16 and the 200 in 22.46, a test in which he surpassed his teammate Jaylyn Smith.

Walker ran with Quincy Robinson, Jaylin Johnson and Smith in the winning 4×100 relay and teamed with Johnson, Smith and Jamal Rule to win the 4×200.

Rule, the electrifying runner, won his individual specialty, the 400, in 49.69 seconds, a top-50 time in the state. Rule, Smith, Samuel Fatovic and Jeremiah Davidson won the 4×400 for the Hornets.

Field Events MVP Jacob Butler led East’s third-place finish. Butler swept the throws, winning the shot put with an effort of 47 feet, 8 inches and throwing the discus with a throw of 119 feet, 4 inches. Tim Grooms had a third and a fourth for the Mustangs in the throws.

The Mustangs also did well in the jumps. Jordan Brooks (42-1) handily won the triple jump. Mustangs Oliver Shank and Christian Seballos finished 1-2 in the pole vault.

West Rowan’s points came primarily from the jumps and the two hurdles events.

Kaden Feaster won the long jump with an effort of 20 feet, 4 inches to edge East’s Aiden Morris and Carson’s Aman by 2 inches. Kendrik Cornelius was second in the triple jump. Harry Hartwell took a second and third place in the hurdles race.

North Rowan’s standout was Kemyon Oglesby, who won both hurdles events with PRs. He clocked 15.66 seconds in the 100 hurdles and 40.39 in the 300 hurdles.

South Rowan’s 49 points came primarily from distance and featured record-breaking performances from Distance MVP Julian in his two individual events.

His time of 9:44 in the 3200 broke his own meet record.

The Liberty recruit’s time of 4:23.96 in the 1600 broke a long-standing mark set by West Rowan’s Jeff Hutchinson. Hutchinson had a notable county meet in 1980, winning the 800, 1600 and 3200. He posted a time of 4:24.46 in the 1600, a mark that stood in county meets for two generations.

South earned a PR and a second-place finish in the 800 from Grayson Cromer, a recent commitment to East Tennessee State.

But it was Carson’s day. The Cougars are county track kings for the second year in a row.

“There is no Gatorade bath,” Lowe said with a laugh. “But the county trophy is enough. “It was a phenomenal day to be a Cougar.”