By Eric Lusk
Sports Editor
elusk@elkintribune.com

CLEMMONS — Carol Blakenship isn’t kidding when she says she likes to go out strong early in a race.

The East Wilkes junior took the lead from the opening few steps and never relinquished it during Saturday morning’s 1A state cross country championship meet at Tanglewood Park.

Blankenship capped an undefeated season by recording the most dominating 1A girls performance in state history, beating her closest competition, Jodie Lemons of North Stokes, by more than a minute. Blankenship’s time of 18:59.30 broke the state record by more than 20 seconds. Lemons crossed the line in 20:09.99.

Blankenship’s time would have won the 2A and 3A girls meets with ease, and would have placed her 11th in the 4A girls competition.

“I particularly like running by myself,” she said moments after her gold medal performance. “I like to get out ahead.”

Blankenship said she enjoys the Tanglewood course but didn’t have particularly fond memories of the state meets there in 2007 and 2008. As a freshman, she was running with the leaders for awhile but had to withdraw after collapsing on the course. Last season, she was slowed by a stress fracture in her foot. Still, she managed to nab third place.

There were no health concerns this time, and as coach Anita Tharpe likes to say, a healthy Blankenship spells trouble for everyone else.

“I give all the credit to her conditioning,” Tharpe said. “You won’t find a kid who works harder, day in and day out. I don’t care if it’s rain, snow, whatever, she is going to run. You can tell she trains year round.”

At the start on the Tanglewood course, the runners are spread out across an open field. After about 100 or so yards, the course narrows quickly and the trail running begins. Blankenship already had a step or two lead the moment she reached the narrowing section. Her lead quick grew to three seconds and then to five as the runners did a lap around a giant open field near the parking lots.

“I heard this one lady say, ‘Look at that rabbit go out,’” Tharpe said. “I said, ‘Rabbit nothing.’ That rabbit is not going to back up and stop. That’s not going to happen. People who have seen her run in the past knew that she was the real deal, and it wasn’t a rabbit.

“When she went into the woods and had a minute lead, I just said, ‘Lord keep her heart beating and she’ll be fine.’ She picked it up even more. She’s just so determined.”

Blankenship said the drive to beat the 1A state record of 19:22 — set by Topsail’s Zatha Loewen back in 2006 — kept her motivated. But even she was surprised by how much she edited the old mark.

“I was thinking about the record the whole time,” she said. “I kept looking at my watch and kept going faster ... I wasn’t expecting to be that far ahead of everyone the whole race. I just stayed focused on where I was running, where my feet were landing and the trail ahead of me.”

Blankenship collected her third state championship as a high school runner. She was part of two 4x800 state champion relay teams this past spring and in 2008. Former East Wilkes runner Eric Blackburn, now racing for Mars Hill, won the 1A boys meet last season.

Blankenship’s feat was one of many headlines achieved by runners from the Yadkin Valley area. Mount Airy’s Matus Kriska claimed the 1A boys title.

Wilkes Central’s Chase Miller took gold in the 2A boys finale, while teammate Laney Browder was seventh in the 2A girls competition. Starmount junior Aaron Combs placed 10th overall in the 2A meet, achieving his personal goal of all-state status. Kaitlyn Mosteller of West Wilkes was 10th in the 1A girls meet.

Surry Central’s boys placed seventh in the team standings in the 2A meet. The West Stokes girls earned 10th among the 2A girls.

Carrie Blankenship, Carol’s sister, finished 25th in the 1A girls meet with a time of 22:12.96. This was Carrie’s first appearance in the state cross country meet.

“I got boxed in at the beginning,” Carrie said. “I tried to stay with Kaitlyn (Mosteller) but she was already too far off. People got in front of me and cut in front of me.”

Carrie finished strong though, using some of her 800 meter skills to move up a few places coming down the stretch.

Combs considers himself a natural 800 runner but decided to give cross country his full attention this summer and fall. He was rewarded with a trip onto the award’s stage following the 2A boys race. His 10th place time was 17:25.56.

He beat the 11th-place runner, Levi Rolles of East Lincoln, by 0.43 of a second. Less than five seconds separated seventh through 14th places.

“I came out really fast, actually faster than I’ve ever come out before,” Combs said. “About halfway through I was hurting a little bit but I was pretty happy with where I finished.”

Wilkes Central’s Miller won the 2A race with a time of 16:35.93. Miller was the only runner to beat Combs in the conference championship race a few weeks ago.

“Aaron has had a great season,” Rams coach Kristi Gaddis said, noting the junior’s fourth-place finish in the regional. “Determination and dedication has brought him to where he is now....a sub-17:00 runner.”

Jacob Fulk was Surry Central’s top boys runner Saturday, placing 16th with a time of 17:34.10. Carlos Vega placed 54th for the Eagles in 18:31.16, while teammate Raul Lachino was 59th in 18:40.41.