South Johnston’s Jacob Gonzalez wins NCHSAA 3A East cross country regional
Even though Jacob Gonzalez’s distance-running career at South Johnston has featured a myriad of high-level successes, it’s a single misstep that has remained with him – and provided a fierce motivational training tool – over the past year.
For Gonzalez, it was fitting that he would return to the Red Oak Middle School course on Oct. 31, considering he has been haunted by his performance at the same layout since last year’s N.C. High School Athletic Association 3A East regional cross country championships.
Coming off a title effort as a freshman, Gonzalez was unable to defend his crown as a sophomore and instead fell to Northern Nash’s Stephen Whitehead, who was competing on his home course.
Gonzalez, now a junior, wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice as he roared to a boys victory at this year’s regionals on Saturday at Red Oak. Gonzalez’s time of 15:37 was his personal best and was the top time posted on the course since 2005.
“I was on a mission,’’ Gonzalez said. “I came here hoping I could take a bad memory and replace it with a good memory.’’
Gonzalez found himself in a rare situation early as he was in second place through the first mile behind Two Rivers 3A Conference rival Gable Dershem from Cleveland.
“The plan was definitely to go out and get the lead,’’ Dershem said. “Once Jacob gets ahead of you, he doesn’t let up. And I knew he was going for revenge (Saturday). I had to go out and set a pace.’’
Midway through the race, Gonzalez went ahead to stay and continued to get stronger, finishing 19 seconds ahead of Dershem. Gable’s twin brother, Wyatt, was third at 16:00.
“Gable went ahead early and gave me someone to pace with,’’ Gonzalez said. “He pressed me a bit. I’m not used to seeing somebody in front of me.’’
Northern Nash, the team champion for the second consecutive year, went 4-5-6 in the boys individual standings, led by junior Daniel Belton in fourth at 16:06. Whitehead was fifth at 16:20.
The Knights dominated the field with 44 points, followed by Topsail (101), Corinth Holders (108) and West Carteret (126). Those squads, along with the top seven individuals not on qualifying teams, advanced to next Saturday’s NCHSAA 3A championships in Kernersville.
Patrick Myers led Corinth Holders in ninth (16:40.75), while teammate Austin Carroll finished 11th (16:51). The Pirates’ Andre Hichue took 20th and Chad Driscoll was 23rd.
Smithfield-Selma’s Caleb Silver just missed out on an at-large individual state bid. He finished 16th in 16:59.
One club that won’t be at the states will be Cleveland, which was disqualified from the regionals as a team for a uniform discrepancy.
Before the race, Cleveland’s runners were told that their running shorts weren’t all the same, as some of the shorts featured different piping down the sides.
Several runners were forced to change into different shorts, and the Dershems needed to go into the woods to change while their rivals were stretching.
Since the Dershems finished strongly, meet representatives decided to go with the twins’ shorts as the official team jersey. Others not wearing those same shorts were disqualified. Still, the Dershems will be at the states, though Cleveland coach Marissa Wingate was left to wonder if the Rams could have qualified as a team before the ruling.
“We ran with these uniforms all year,’’ Wingate said. “When I started coaching here, we had 18 runners. Now, we have 55. So we keep ordering shorts, but some of them are of a newer version with different stripes on the side. I know rules are rules, but we are supposed to be out here for the kids, and they are the ones hurt by this. I take the fault for it. I don’t know if we would have made it (as a team), but we would have had a shot.’’
Said Northern Nash coach/meet director Jeff Dodrill: “It was a uniform infraction. By the rule book, all athletes on a team must be in the same school-issued uniform. It was appealed to the rules committee, but the decision was upheld.’’
Corinth Holders closed out its boys-girls qualification sweep by taking second in the girls team standings with 63 points. West Carteret was the winner at 39, while Onslow County powers White Oak (155) and Jacksonville (157) were third and fourth.
“I’m very happy and proud of our girls,’’ said Corinth Holders coach Joe Johnston. “We start running the Saturday after school gets out for the summer. You can’t do that unless you are committed and want to work hard. It all starts there.’’
West Carteret’s Emme Fisher was the girls winner at 19:05 – 17 seconds ahead of Eastern Wayne’s Fiona Pedrick. Corinth Holders boasted five runners in the top 20, led by senior Kayla Ste. Marie in the fourth spot at 20:09.
Sophomore Gwyn Reece of Smithfield-Selma finished sixth to advance to the state finals in 20:16. She was one of eight underclassmen to finish in the top 10 individually.
Kayla Alznauer placed 10th for the Pirates (20:35.78), while Callie Blandford was 16th and Cameron Rutherford took 19th. Kaelin Sanderford’s 20th place run gave the Pirates five runners in the top 20.
Cleveland’s identical twins Jessica Cullins (ninth) and Jasmine Cullins (11th) also picked up at-large qualifying positions for the states.
This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 8:39 PM with the headline "South Johnston’s Jacob Gonzalez wins NCHSAA 3A East cross country regional."