Lions run back to Division III State Championships
Lead Summary
By
The Highland County Press-
The Fairfield Lions boys' cross-country team earned their second trip to the Division III State Cross-Country Championship, placing third at the Region 11 Division III Championship held at Pickerington North HS on Saturday.
The team placed third overall with a score of 97 points behind Sugarcreek Garaway's 41 points and Fredericktown's 72 points. Taking the fourth and final spot to earn a trip to state was Mt. Gilead with 109 points.
Leading the way for the Lions was sophomore Wyatt Evans placing 19th (17:19), a mere three places from being a top 16 qualifying individual.
Next was freshman, Matthew Mangus placing 22nd (17:38). Following closely behind Mangus was freshman Noah Richmond placing 23rd (17:42).
Sophomore Trent Swisher was 25th overall (17:49); freshman Andrew Davis was 40th (18:17), freshman Nick Price was 55th (18:39) and finishing seventh man for the team was senior Dustin Willey placing 57th (18:42).
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"Collectively, runners one through five ran a spread of 58 seconds which is our best performance of the year," FHS assistant coach Bill Mangus said. "Coach (Raymond) Friend and I stressed all week long this is what we need to do, and the kids responded.
"We were able to defeat several schools that beat us earlier in the season, and we are optimistic about the future with four freshmen, two sophomores and one senior competing today. Matthew Mangus and Noah Richmond had the highest places at the regional competition for freshman runners in the history of our program."
The team will compete at the State Championships held at the National Raceway Park in Hebron on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 11 a.m.
The team placed third overall with a score of 97 points behind Sugarcreek Garaway's 41 points and Fredericktown's 72 points. Taking the fourth and final spot to earn a trip to state was Mt. Gilead with 109 points.
Leading the way for the Lions was sophomore Wyatt Evans placing 19th (17:19), a mere three places from being a top 16 qualifying individual.
Next was freshman, Matthew Mangus placing 22nd (17:38). Following closely behind Mangus was freshman Noah Richmond placing 23rd (17:42).
Sophomore Trent Swisher was 25th overall (17:49); freshman Andrew Davis was 40th (18:17), freshman Nick Price was 55th (18:39) and finishing seventh man for the team was senior Dustin Willey placing 57th (18:42).
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"Collectively, runners one through five ran a spread of 58 seconds which is our best performance of the year," FHS assistant coach Bill Mangus said. "Coach (Raymond) Friend and I stressed all week long this is what we need to do, and the kids responded.
"We were able to defeat several schools that beat us earlier in the season, and we are optimistic about the future with four freshmen, two sophomores and one senior competing today. Matthew Mangus and Noah Richmond had the highest places at the regional competition for freshman runners in the history of our program."
The team will compete at the State Championships held at the National Raceway Park in Hebron on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 11 a.m.