Kernersville – Andrews freshman O’Malley Salinas thought he could’ve gone faster during Saturday’s N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A state championship race.
Still, his time of 16 minutes 46.83 seconds was enough to cross the finish line first at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex, becoming the first cross-country state champion in Andrews history and the first men’s cross country state champion in Cherokee County history.
“It feels really good,” Salinas said. “I had no idea I was the first one in the county until this morning, when my dad talked about it. I was really happy, I guess it’s a big deal, and it was a real blessing to go out there and do it.”
Coming into the race, Salinas expected to have to go all-out and have to fight to the very end. But it played out at a much slower pace, allowing him to do what he’s done throughout the fall. Get out in the leading pack, then kick it in the last mile to the finish.
Salinas and Christ the King sophomore Blake Nicholson broke away from the field early in the race, and about the halfway point, Salinas saw his dad, Travis. He gave him a smile, letting him know he was going to be a state champion. Down the stretch he made his move, eventually beating Nicholson by nearly 15 seconds.
“It was just really a lot more calm than some of the races I’ve been in,” Salinas said.
“There’s nobody that really wanted to push the pace much more. I didn’t even have to (pick it up) the last mile, the last 1K was really when I started to pick it up a lot.”
Besides making Andrews and county history, Salinas became the sixth men’s runner in Smoky Mountain Conference history to win a state championship, with the last being Hayesville’s Kyle Ingram in 2012. Salinas’ win was part of a great day for the conference. Cherokee freshman Dvdaya Swimmer won the 1A women’s race, Swain County repeated as 1A women’s state champions, while Cherokee was runner-up in the 1A men’s team competition.
Instead of taking some time off after winning a conference, regional and state championship, Salinas was out at the Andrews disc golf course the next day for a 12-mile run. He’s planning to run at the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championships on Dec. 3 in Huntsville, Ala.
His goal there is to try to run the top time for freshmen in North Carolina, which is 15:39.70 by Cary Academy’s Xavi Gibson. That’s a far cry from Salinas’s best time of 16:30.34, though he said he was training to run under 16 minutes at the state championship if needed.
Hiwassee Dam sophomore Ethan Russell also competed at the state championships, placing 43rd in a time of 19:02.58. Russell attended cross-country camp this past summer, which served as a springboard for a breakout sophomore year.
His personal best went from 18:50.01 as a freshman to 17:16.70 this fall, which is just off the Hiwassee Dam school record. He was the first Eagles runner to qualify for the state championship since Caelan Anderson in 2017.
“He has gotten better and better each practice and each meet,” Hiwassee Dam head coach Ashley Rhodes said. “And he just really is wanting to succeed. He’s only a sophomore, and I’m really excited to see what he’s going to do come his junior and senior year.”