Hope Julian, Coach Rebekah Julian and South team.

 

Runner-up Sadie Featherstone and East coach Cris Leckonby

 

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY— The smiling faces and the churning legs change, but not the results.

Carson’s girls cross country program has put together a remarkably steady run over the last 11 years, with eight Rowan County team championships and three runner-up finishes.

The latest triumph came Thursday on the roller coaster hills of Salisbury Community Park, where the Cougars edged East Rowan 36-39 for another team title. South Rowan, paced by freshman sensation and newly crowned county champion Hope Julian, who clocked 20:09, placed third with a score of 48.

Carson’s coach throughout all of its success has been Les-Lee Ihme, a science teacher and West Rowan and Appalachian State graduate who is in an expert in forensics, chemistry and running. She’s the only head coach the program ever has had. She’s been on the job since Carson opened its doors for the 2006-07 school year.

“(Boys basketball coach) Brian Perry and I are the last two of the original Carson coaches,” Ihme said.

With runners such as Taylor Conrad, Camden Corley and Makayla  Borst, Carson took four straight county titles from 2019-2022, but South Rowan interrupted that spree in 2023 with an inspired effort. Ihme knew the Cougars were capable of getting back on top on Thursday, but a venue change to Salisbury Community Park, following storm damage to Dan Nicholas Park, brought uncertainty about times holding up, and health has been an issue for Carson all season.

“We’ve been plagued by injuries,” Ihme said.

Ihme’s biggest concern on Thursday was Emily Landaverde, a veteran who has been one of the team’s leaders for a long time.

“Emily has been hurt all year,” Ihme said. “We’ve limited her practices to three days a week, just trying to keep her in commission. She still came up big today. She led the team.”

Landaverde placed fourth in 22:31. The Carson scoresheet was 4-6-7-8-11, five of the top 11. That normally will win comfortably, but only three schools were making any impact.

The Cougars’ margin was thin over East Rowan, which posted a 2-3-9-10-15 score sheet. The Mustangs were led by second-place Sadie Fesperman (22:12), the defending champ, and third-place Morgan Efird (22:29), who is having a breakout sophomore season.

“Looking at it on paper, going in, I thought we would win, that we  were supposed to win if we just did what we should do,” Ihme said. “But there’s a lot of good young talent in the county, and you never really know. It was super close, way too close, but a win is a win.”

Landaverde was supported by Julia Burleson (6th, 22:52), Kara Crotts (7th, 22:56), Karis Miller (8th, 23:02) and Caylee Miracco (11th, 23:34).

Those 32 seconds between Miller crossing the finish line and Miracco’s arrival had to seem like 32 minutes for Ihme, but Miracco, another Carson girl who has been battling injuries, made the difference.

“She had an MRI recently and just got the results,” Ihme said. “She has a torn labrum in her hip. That’s one very tough girl.”

Julian has broken 20 seconds in major meets this season, but the course at Salisbury Community Park is more challenging than most, and she wasn’t pushed hard, as she won by more than two minutes. The younger sister of three-time county champions Noah Julian and Eli Julian, she could potentially eclipse them as a four-time county champ, and she can be a factor at the state level right away.

The top 12 runners are deemed all-county. South also placed Madalynn Gulledge (5th, 22:40) and Brinley Patterson (12th, 23:59) on the all-county team.

Besides taking second and third places, East had all-county runners in Iyanna Lynch Berry (9th, 23:10) and Emma Efird (10th, 23:38).

Katie Roberts finished 13th and led West Rowan. Gabriella Fatovic, taking a break from tennis, led Salisbury with a 14th-place finish, but the Falcons and Hornets didn’t have enough runners to post team scores.

Salisbury won the county championship as recently as 2016. West won its most recent title in 2012. East’s drought of county team championships goes back to 2013.

It was another satisfying county title for the Cougars, the program’s ninth. Carson won its first championship in 2011 after Salisbury had ruled the county event in the Cougars’ first five seasons of cross country competition.

Thirteen years ago Ihme might have done a little more celebrating. By 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, she was ready to hit the sack.

“It was a good day, but it was a long one,” she said.

The next big event for the girls will be the South Piedmont Conference Championships, scheduled for Oct. 17 at Concord’s Frank Lisk Park.