Fairfield Lions win 2016 Ohio Classic
HILLSBORO — Once again, the Fairfield Lions left a Saturday cross-country competition as champions, this time staying within Highland County to do so by taking home the top spot at the 2016 Ohio Classic held at Hillsboro’s Liberty Park.
The new pattern for the Liberty Park course didn’t pose much of a challenge for the three-time state qualifying program, winning the event in a landslide by scoring a low 24 points, while second-place Bethel-Tate were runners-up with 71 points.
Host Hillsboro finished seventh overall out of 12 schools competing as teams with 167 points. McClain also competed in the event, but didn’t have enough runners on their team to have a team score.
The race winner was Bethel-Tate junior Jackson Coates, who had a time of 16:43.00.
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Fairfield’s top finisher was junior Noah Richmond, who was second place overall with a time of 17:08.00.
In all, the Lions had 10 runners place in the Top 20 of the Ohio Classic, including gaining the fourth through ninth spots for seven of the Top 10 spots in the race. There were a total of 135 runners in the race.
In fourth place was junior Matthew Mangus (17:27) followed by senior Wyatt Evans (17:31), sophomore Austin Setty (17:46), senior Trent Swisher (17:52), sophomore Brandtson Duffie (18:00) and sophomore Bennett Hodson (18:05) for ninth place.
In 11th place was junior Andrew Davis (18:24), while freshman Ethan Davis was 13th place (18:35), and senior Dillon Burley was 15th place (18:43).
FHS sophomore Sam Buddelmeyer placed 22nd overall (19:08), and junior Nick Price was 33rd (19:45). Also for the Lions, times included freshmen Gavin Campbell (21:01), Tristan Victor (21:54), Trey Wilkinson (23:19) and Derek Cooper (25:59) and sophomore Riley Friend (30:57).
“The boys put together a solid early-season race,” Fairfield cross-country coach head Raymond Friend said. ”I was pleased that my top seven runners were so close together. Less than one minute separated my first runner to seventh, and my eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th runners were not far behind.
“All of them, from freshman Ethan Davis to seniors Trent, Wyatt and Dillon, are poised to make this season their best. The Liberty Park course is always challenging, and we thank Hillsboro for putting on such a nice race.”
For the Hillsboro Indians, their top finisher was senior Micah Pinney with a time of 19:09. Also in the Top 30 of the race was junior Justin Scott at 19:18. Other HHS times included: sophomores Zane Adams (20:10) and Bailey Lucarello (20:24); freshmen Titus Heiser (22:11), Jeffrey Beery (23:52) and Ryan Harless (27:24) and senior Fred Green (35:23).
The McClain Tigers had four racers in the event with the following times: junior Seth Cross (23:17), freshman Miles McMurry (23:32), sophomore Kaleb Harper (25:45) and junior Noah Scott (26:08).