Staff report

SALISBURY — Led by freshman Hope Julian, South Rowan’s girls, the defending county champs won the Pre-County Meet held on Thursday at Dan Nicholas Park.

Julian’s time was 21:34. She’s the sister of perennial county champions Noah and Eli Julian.

The Pre-County Meet is often, but not always, an accurate predictor of the eventual county champion.

South’s girls had a score of 29 with 1-2-3-10-13 finishes. South’s Madalynn Gulledge was second in 23:48, with Gracie Hinson taking third in 24:00. Brinley Patterson was 10th. Sadie Siscoe was the fifth scorer for the Raiders. She placed 13th.

Carson’s Kara Crotts placed fourth and led the Cougars to second place. Carson went 4-6-8-9-11 — 38, with Julia Burleson, Karis Miller, Emily Landaverde and Caylee Miracco the other Cougar scorers.

Salisbury’s Garbielle Fatovic, who is also playing tennis, took fifth.

East Rowan’s Sadie Featherstone, the defending county champ, led the Mustangs. She was seventh.

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Making a comeback and pacing the boys team scores was West Rowan, which hasn’t been county champion since 2017.

Carson’s Eric Gillis, who placed fourth in last season’s Rowan County Championships, was the boys individual winner. He ran 16:47 and won by almost two minutes.

West runners placed 4-5-6-9-10 — 35. Jonathan Medina led the Falcons with a fourth-place finish in 19:00.  Luke Henson, Bryson Bentley, Jayden Romero and Wayne Hall were the other West scorers.

South’s boys took second place in the team scoring. Ethan Overby finished runner-up in 18:28, moving up quite a bit from last year’s eighth-place finish in the Rowan County Championships.

South’s Garrison Raper (7th) and Davis Kemp (8th) had top-10 finishes.

Carson’s Chance Simmons ran 18:55 for third place.

Salisbury’s Samuel Fatovic and Finnegan Avery placed 11th and 12th.

Cooper Doty was 13th to lead East runners.