Lions win SHAC title for 5th consecutive season
On Saturday at Ripley High School, the Fairfield boys cross-country team, who are 8th in the Division III state rankings, dominated the field at the Southern Hills Athletic Conference championships, having 10 runners earning all-league honors, en route to their fifth consecutive conference championship.
As a team, the Lions scored 29 points, with second-place Eastern Brown finishing with a score of 80.
With a field of 78 runners, the Lions were led by Matthew Mangus, who placed third with a time of 16:28, as two Peebles runners were first and second in the event.
Next were Noah Richmond, fifth (16:48); Dillon Burley, sixth (16:54); Wyatt Evans, seventh (17:03); Austin Setty, eighth (17:03); Andrew Davis, ninth (17:04); and rounding out the Top 10 was Trent Swisher in 10th (17:08).
Also making All-SHAC honors were Brandtson Duffie, 11th (17:13); Bennett Hodson, 12th (17:33); and Nick Price 14th (17:42).
The Lions also had Sam Buddelmeyer in 16th (18:00) and Mason Cain in 21st (18:38), followed by Lane Frost (20:29), Phoenix Taylor (22:23), Jason Moeller (22:31) and Riley Friend (27:52) racing in the league event.
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“This is a great warm-up race for us as we start next week with postseason tournaments," FHS head coach Raymond Friend said. "The strength of our team is our depth, as we showed that again (Saturday). The only thing that is disappointing is that we can only run seven runners in the state tournament, and that means that this was the last race for some of our kids who would have been able to qualify to the regionals as individuals.
“We have three freshmen and a sophomore (Duffie, Hodson, Buddelmeyer and Price) that would earn All-District distinction, but they will not get the chance this year,” Friend said.
For the girls, they placed third as a team, with freshman Megan Gragg placing third overall (21:36) to lead the Lady Lions.
Also earning All-SHAC honors was freshman Alexis Swisher with a ninth-place finish (22:21). Narrowly missing all-league honors was freshman Sammi Shepherd by placing 16th (23:23). Also placing for the girls was Meadow Cunningham (25:26), Andrea Spears (25:27) and Brianna Barnes (27:46)
"This was the most complete race that our high school girls team has run in years," Friend said. "We have five freshmen and one sophomore, so I really have high hopes for the future of our girls team.”
On Saturday, Oct. 24, the Fairfield Lions boys and girls teams will be running in the Southeast District Championship at the University of Rio Grande.