East Bladen’s Aliah Jacobs ran a personal best Saturday in the NCHSAA 2A Central Regional cross country meet and qualified for the state meet scheduled Oct. 31.
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East Bladen’s Aliah Jacobs, far left, on stage Saturday with other individual runners who qualified for the NCHSAA 2A cross country championship meet.
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East Bladen’s Aliah Jacobs works to pass a runner during Saturday’s NCHSAA 2A Central Regional cross country meet in Kernersville.
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East Bladen’s Aliah Jacobs, center, with her family, Kevin Jones, left, and Hanna Rogers, right, at Saturday’s NCHSAA 2A Central Regional cross country meet.
Contributed photo
KERNERSVILLE – Aliah Jacobs had “mixed feelings” during Saturday’s N.C. High School Athletic Association’s 2A girls‘ Central Regional meet. Was she going to be fast enough to qualify for the state championship race?
Pushing herself to a personal best in the 5,000-meter race, the 14-year-old East Bladen freshman crossed the finish line in 23 minutes, 30.02 seconds. It made her one of seven individual runners to advance to Friday’s 2A championship meet back at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex.
“In the beginning, I definitely thought that I was going to qualify,” Jacobs said. “Then, in the middle of the race, I was like, ‘I don’t think I’ve got this.’ By the end of it, I was like, ‘I definitely got this.’ So, it was kind of a little bit of mixed feelings.”
The top six teams along with the top seven individual runners not on those teams at the Central Regional qualified for the state meet.
Jacobs placed 27th out of 77 runners in Saturday’s race. Freshman Kenadie Baker of South Stanly won in 18:38.50, which was 91 seconds ahead of runner-up Ali Otto of Eno River Academy. Eno River won the team championship.
Also running for the East Bladen girls’ team were Kayelynn Chambers, who placed 53rd in 25:49.84 and Kassidii Goodwin, who finished 60th in 26:58.88.
The East Bladen boys’ team also had three runners. Andrew Shelton was 74th in 23:01.65, Ernest Washington was 77th in 23:49.56 and Jason Cromartie was 83rd in 26:54.66. Bishop McGuinness was the team champion.
West Bladen had three runners compete in the 3A Central Regional. Jailyn Russ was 45th in the girls’ race in 27:18.06. In the boys’ race, Dylan Taylor was 59th in 21:22.74 and Michael Reyes Maldonado was 63rd in 21:48.25. N.C. School of Science & Math won the boys’ title and Union Academy won the girls’ championship.
Jacobs credits her track experience as helping her in cross country.
“When I was in elementary school I did track,” she said. “So sprinting in the beginning to get out is the biggest thing that keeps me ahead. It’s sprinting at the end to stay ahead and have my time be better definitely helps out.”
Jacobs enjoys the competitiveness and camaraderie that comes with competing in cross country.
“The thrill, the adrenaline and just the nervousness when you get out there,” Jacobs said. “Having a team that is really supportive, and winning definitely keeps you going. You just want to win more and more.”
Sonny Jones can be reached at [email protected].