Bill Kemp Invitational: Coor, Mehlhaff are individual champs; Rosewood sweeps team titles

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on October 22, 2014 1:52 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Spring Creek senior Allen Coor entered the final loop of the woods trailing Charles B. Aycock's Joseph Mooneyham by nearly eight seconds.

Coor knew he had a little bit left in the tank, but wasn't sure if he had enough to catch Mooneyham.

But, Coor got a welcomed break.

Mooneyham zigged when he should have zagged. He made a wrong turn going into one of the circles, forcing him to turn around and try to get back on course.

He lost all the ground he had and more to Coor, who cruised to the finish line with a time of 18:21 to be crowned the 2014 Bill Kemp Memorial champion at Old Waynesborough Park on Tuesday.

Mooneyham, who has been a mainstay in top fives for his whole CB Aycock career, once again had his first cross country win elude him with a 18:33 finish.

"The last three years, I didn't have a chance at this race," Coor said. "This year, I got a little bit of help. But I ran a better race than I had been running this season ... This was my best time this year."

Despite the first-place finish, Spring Creek's team didn't have enough runners to place in the team scores. Instead Rosewood -- led by top-three finishes from Dalton Farmer, Elaina Amy, Rebecca Fitzmaurice -- took first place in the team competition. The boys scored 37 points, while the girls had 37.

It was the first time in school history the Rosewood girls won the county title, meanwhile the boys repeated as champs.

Southern Wayne finished second for the boys with 43 points as Brandon Biggins, Cole Atwood and Anthony Womble crossed in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. CBA (83), Eastern Wayne (93), WCDS (185) and Wayne Christian (194) rounded out the boys field.

C.B. Aycock finished second for the girls with 44 points. Southern Wayne (76), Eastern Wayne (80), Wayne Country Day (100) completed the girls' field.

Mooneyham wasn't the only person who had trouble navigating a course that would have been a better fit for a ATV, due to the puddles, mud and thorns on the trail.

Nichole Mehlhaff from Goldsboro, admitted she too, had a problem getting around the loop. She came to a fork in the road and didn't know which direction to take. She guessed right and after that blew the rest of the field away with a 21:52, beating second-place Amy by nearly three minutes.

There was no confusion about where to go after the race, however.

Both Mooneyham and Mehlhaff went directly to their fathers and were embraced with hugs. Both on the brink of exhaustion, one expressing the happiness of winning, the other dealing with the disappointment of what should have been.

"Made a wrong turn," Mooneyham told his dad. "Oh well."