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Kriska, Blankenship run to Class 1-A state titles
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Published: November 8, 2009
CLEMMONS
Matus Kriska of Mount Airy and Carol Blankenship of East Wilkes will have one thing on their minds when the NCHSAA cross-country championships roll around in 2010 -- repeating as state champions.
Kriska ran a solid tactical race, and Blankenship churned away from the field in record-setting fashion as the two juniors won Class 1-A individual state titles yesterday at sunny Tanglewood Park.
Kriska toyed with the leaders in the first half of the race, then turned on the jets to cover the 3.1-mile course in 16 minutes, 34.13 seconds, building a winning margin of more than 13 seconds.
Blankenship, whose last name could have been "Hardship" during her first two state meets at Tanglewood, came in healthy for the first time and destroyed the field with a time of 18:59. She posted a winning margin of more than a minute, and beat the former 1-A girls state record by more than 20 seconds.
Kriska, who was sixth last year, said that he thought his main competition would come from Tyler Breedlove of Hayesville, who finished third last year. Kriska said he thought the first mile went slowly, but he held the pace with Breedlove and Dalton Wally of Misenheimer Gray Stone for the first half of the race.
"I thought he would be my toughest competitor of the day, but he didn't have a good tactic today," Kriska said of Breedlove. "He was running in front of us, and we would catch up and he would sprint. He killed himself doing that, he really did.
"So I thought, ‘You know what, not to be mean or anything, but I am going to keep catching up.' And I figured he would kill himself eventually and he really did."
Kriska and Wally passed Breedlove about midway through the race, and Kriska said he was surprised that Wally stayed in striking distance until the final hill, about a half mile from the finish.
"He was maybe 10 yards behind me, which is a gap, but someone could close that in no time," Kriska said. "As soon as we got up the hill, I wasn't tired and he was so I opened up that gap. Going through the woods I just thought I would work hard and I was done for the day.
"In the woods I felt perfectly fine if he did come back. But I played my cards right."
Blankenship had faced nothing but turmoil at Tanglewood in her first two state meets. She collapsed as a freshman, and last year had a stress fracture in her lower leg that limited her to third place.
But yesterday, with the coolness of the morning fading fast on a clear day, Blankenship barely heard footsteps from opposing runners after the field cleared the wide opening chute. She said the only thing thought about while running alone was bettering the state record of 19:22.76.
"I didn't really know what I would have to do," Blankenship said as she was mobbed by well-wishers. "I didn't know if they would run with me or I would be by myself like I normally am. I was thinking about the record the whole time. I just kept looking at my watch. Going down the hill I pushed myself really hard.
"It feels really good since I finished in third place when I had a stress fracture and this was the first time I was really healthy for the race and it felt amazing."
And Blankenship set the record without being pushed -- by anyone other than herself.
"I particularly like running by myself because it keeps me from being nervous like I usually am when I am running with other people, so I like being ahead," she said. "I wanted to win and break the state record and I did both.
"I wasn't expecting to get below 19 (minutes). I was expecting to break it a little bit, but I wasn't expecting that."
Gray Stone Day finished with 65 points to win the boys team title, besting defending champion Hayesville by seven points. Robbinsville won the girls team title with 60 points, and Bishop McGuinness, the defending champion, finished a distant fourth.
Meredith Bennett, a senior and McGuinness' anchor, finished fourth with a time of 20:28.51.
mlinker@wsjournal.com.
727-7324
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