A junior on the Carrboro track team, Perone anchored the Jaguars' 4x400, relay in the last event of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 2-A state championship meet Saturday in Greensboro, then she almost immediately had to jump in a car to race back to Carrboro High School to play in her soccer team's 6-0 shutout of Northwood in the state quarterfinals.

She arrived about 10 minutes after the game had started. As she entered the soccer stadium, the PA announced the news to the Carrboro crowd: the Jaguars had won the NCHSAA 2-A state championship in women's track & field.

"It was absolutely incredible," Perone said. "The fact that we had only nine people made it amazing that we won."

Carrboro Grace Morken ran to two individual titles for Carrboro, winning the 800 meters (in 2:19.27) and 1,600, meters (5:13.09) Saturday at N.C. A&T State University's Belk Track.

The team championship wasn't decided until the final event. Carrboro finished third in the decisive 4x400 relay -- Perone, Alexa Phillips, Elizabeth Marshall and Morken -- winning by 3.4 seconds in front of Salisbury.

That was enough to lock up the team victory with 55 points to 48 for runner-up Salisbury.

Bunn was third with 46 points. High Point Andrews, Waxhaw Cuthbertson and five-time women's champion Burlington Cummings tied for fourth with 36 points each.

Led by Michael Jushcuk's victory in the 800 meters (1:59.72), Carrboro finished seventh in the men's meet with 25, points. Berry Academy won with 113, followed by runnerup Cummings (41.50) and Cedar Ridge (33) in third.

"No one had really thought too much about winning the state championship, until we won our regional," Carrboro distance coach Sarah Hallenbeck said. "After that, they all realized they could do it -- if they all turned in personal records and season-best times."

Just about every Jaguar did exactly that.

Perone clocked a personal best in the 1,600 meters (5:16.74) and finished third behind Morken, who had PRs in both the 800, and 1,600.

Underclasswomen Camilla Dohlman and Rachel Burch both had PRs in the 3,200 meters, finishing fourth and sixth, respectively. Junior Laura Hamon also had a PR in the 3,200.

Sophomore Alexa Phillips did the same in taking fourth in the 800 behind Morken.

Molly Scanga, one of the few seniors on the team, ran with Dohlman, Phillips and Perone to win the 4x800, relay in 9:49.09, a season best for Carrboro. That depth among the Carrboro distance runners allowed Morken, who usually runs with the 4x800, team, to sit out that one and concentrate on her two individual events and the 4x400.

"Winning the 4 x 800 was great, because we got a win for a senior," Perone said. "That was a great feeling."

Most of the Carrboro women also had run with the Jaguar cross-country team, which won its second NCHSAA championship last fall. Combined with the men's cross-country title and the Jaguars' swimming title, Saturday gave Carrboro its fifth 2-A championship since the school opened.

"We haven't gotten used to it," Perone said. "It's just as great an experience every single time. You're just so proud of the accomplishment, and you feel so great."

The meet was the last for Hallenbeck, who will be leaving at the end of the semester to teach writing at UNC Wilmington.

"It couldn't have gone better Saturday," she said. "It was really nice to have that be my last meet with Carrboro."

Carrboro's distance runners showed up on the men's side of the meet, too, where Dominic Collichio and Andrew Witcher finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 3,200 meters.

Carrboro's Alexander Taylor, Dylan Arant, Jordan Thomas and Jushchuk -- of them underclassmen -- took second in the 4x800 relay behind Berry Academy. John Ussery Intintolo, Talibdeem McClain, James Stonecypher and Jushchuk took fifth in the 4x400.

Cedar Ridge's A. J. Tucker had the Red Wolves' best showing with 4:32.55 for second place in the 1,600. Eric Williams of Northwood was sixth in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200.

McClain's Carrboro football teammate, Derek Bryant, competed in discus and threw 128-09 for ninth place.