Bryson City – Andrews freshman O’Malley Salinas wasn’t sure what he wanted his goal to be in Saturday’s 1A West Regional Championship. The goal the whole season has been to qualify and peak for this Saturday’s state meet, and Salinas didn’t want to mess up that plan.
By the end of the race, the other 113 runners in the field would love to be as unsure as Salinas if it meant they could put up similar results. After winning the Smoky Mountain Conference championship on the same course two weeks earlier, Salinas once again crossed the finish line at Kituwah Mound first, winning the 1A West Regional championship in a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 30.34 seconds.
“Today, I didn’t even know if I wanted to try and win it,” Salinas said. “After praying about it, I just wanted to feel it out through the race, and I felt good in the end.”
Salinas made a point to try to get up with the leaders early in the race, then veered to one side to give himself space and make sure he didn’t get trapped behind a pack of runners. From there, he executed the same strategy he has all year, kicking in the final half mile to win.
Saturday’s race pitted Salinas against the fastest runner in 1A this year, Christ the King sophomore Blake Nicholson, who finished third behind Salinas and Cherokee senior Jaylen Bark. Nicholson’s personal best of 16:22.10 remains the top time in the 1A classification so far this year.
Salinas will run at the state championship at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville, where he has a good chance to become the first cross-country champion in Andrews High School history. Salinas ran on the course on Oct. 22, when he got to watch his younger brother Elliot, compete at the NCRunners Middle School Festival.
“It’s kind of like a dirt bike track if you take out all the jumps and everything like that,” Salinas said. “So I think it’s going to be fun. I think I’ll throw down a pretty fast time, hopefully.”
Hiwassee Dam’s Ethan Russell will join Salinas in the boys race, as he was one of the seven-fastest runners not on the top four qualifying teams, placing eighth in a time of 17:16.70.
“I’ve been training all year for the goal to make state,” Russell said. “Now that I’m finally here, it kind of feels like it’s paid off.”
In the girls race, Tri-County’s Fern Crayton finished second in a time of 19:26.26 to punch her ticket to Kernersville. It’s been a topsy-turvy season for Crayton, who wasn’t able to train for three weeks in September after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and having other health issues. Since then, she’s ramped up her training, and it’s shown in her last two competitions.
She broke 20 minutes for the first time in the conference championship meet, then was 33 seconds faster at regionals.
“I didn’t expect a whole lot right after I got COVID,” Crayton said. “But it’s really about all the hard work from practice paying off, so I’m really happy.”