SALISBURY — Conor Honeycutt was getting impatient about this whole county championship thing.
The junior whose brother was a running stud at East Rowan in recent years beat him two years ago and he finished second to Carson’s Kyle Gillis last year.
Wednesday at Dan Nicholas Park, Honeycutt came around the bridge with a tenth of a mile to go with no one around and vindication a few feet away.
“It’s about time,” Honeycutt said. “I felt like I had it coming. If I didn’t win it today I would have been disappointed.”
East’s boys won their sixth consecutive cross country county title behind Honeycutt’s first-place finish in 16:17, one second off a county meet record set by South Rowan’s Michael York in 2010.
Honeycutt, who missed the Pre-County Meet in August due to sickness, edged Carson’s Zach Marchinko after finishing second the last two years. East had seven runners make the top 12 to place on the all-county team. Cal Meyers, Josh Rowell and Chance Brown finished 3-4-5 to help East beat Carson in points 21-37.
“As strong as the runners in this county are, that’s a heck of a goal to reach,” East coach Rick Roseman said. “It’s a tribute to how hard they work.”
Marchinko finished second overall in 16:29.
“He ran a good race,” Honeycutt said of Marchinko, who won the pre-county meet. “He was right on my pace so I was just right behind him and left him before the lake.”
Justin Allen (eighth, 17:43), Jason Basso (11th, 17:54.1) and Jason Troutman (12th, 17:54.3) were the remaining all-county members for East, who have won the county 19 times since 1987.
“It’s so exciting for the boys and the girls to get the cross country championships back to East Rowan,” Roseman said.
Second-place Carson got top 10 finishes from Danyal Sherer (sixth, 17:33), Dylan Snider (seventh, 17:41) and Garrett Ingold (ninth, 17:47). Nick Cox (13th, 17:57), Grant Doby (15th, 17:58) and Will Holshouser (16th, 18:15) also had respectable times.
West’s Jordan Bostian placed 10th overall in 17:50 and Salisbury’s David Uto led the Hornets, coming in 14th (17:57).
West placed third with 84 points while Salisbury, South and North Rowan rounded out the field.