The Fairfield boys cross country team claimed their first team victory in five seasons Tuesday, September 29th at the Indian Lake Warrior Invite at Indian Lake Park near Farmington — a milestone that came just one week after the Fairfield girls ended an eight-year team title drought of their own at the Mount Pleasant Invitational — while the Van Buren County girls won their home meet for the second time this season.
The meet originally was scheduled to feature only two or three teams, but expanded after several schools had their meets cancelled due to poor course conditions elsewhere. Fairfield was among those redirected, having been scheduled to compete in Washington at the Washington Golf and Country Club before that meet was cancelled. Keokuk and WACO also joined after the Washington meet was cancelled, while Oskaloosa, Holy Trinity Catholic, and Scotland County of Missouri rounded out the field. For Van Buren County, it marked their second home meet of the season, having previously hosted the Riverview Club Invitational on September 8th where the girls won with 33 points and boys were runner-up finishers with 82 points.
Girls Results
No. 6-ranked Van Buren County won the girls team title with 50 points, followed by Fairfield in second with 64, Oskaloosa third with 72, WACO fourth with 97, and Scotland County fifth with 100. No. 3-ranked Josie Dykstra of WACO won the overall individual title at 19:45.
Van Buren County was led by Kayley Snowgren in fourth place at 21:23, followed by Rory Philips in seventh at 22:01, Adalyn Snowgren in eighth at 22:02, Gabby Titus in 12th at 22:30, Cami Daugherty in 19th at 23:40, Brystol Wiley in 22nd at 24:20, and Paisley Baker in 26th at 26:25.
Fairfield was led by Alex Jo Steward in fifth at 21:35, followed by Kensley Fligg in sixth at 21:56, Ava Jones in ninth at 22:16, Naomi Stiemsma in 15th at 23:14, and Fernanda Baez in 29th at 27:59.
Boys Results
Fairfield won the boys team title with 40 points, followed by Oskaloosa in second with 51, Keokuk third with 62, Van Buren County fourth with 87, and Holy Trinity Catholic fifth with 223. Lane Smith of Oskaloosa won the individual title at 17:03.
Fairfield was led by Brice Boatright in fifth at 18:13, followed by Elijah Hamilton in seventh at 18:18, River Fulton in eighth at 18:21, Parker Reid in ninth at 18:22, Kalen Patterson in 11th at 18:53, Aaron Wellnitz in 12th at 19:00, Liam Dowd-Robbins in 20th at 19:41, Elisha Vander Linden in 25th at 20:09, Jordan Miller in 30th at 20:39, John Miller in 31st at 20:53, Sam Nelson in 36th at 21:37, Elijah Bar-Shimon in 38th at 21:52, Aiden Holthus in 41st at 22:30, Kellen Copeland in 43rd at 22:40, Kris Powell in 44th at 22:46, Sawyer McCready in 45th at 22:59, Cael Guffey in 46th at 23:02, Daniel Snyder in 47th at 23:02, Quimby Scotton in 60th at 26:33, and Alex Hudson in 62nd at 26:49.
Van Buren County was led by Landry Loeffler in second at 17:43, followed by Kayden Farris in 15th at 19:04, Bo Brecount in 18th at 19:36, Sawyer Spiker in 23rd at 20:03, Leo Jirak in 29th at 20:37, Thomas Roberts in 34th at 21:32, Jackson Meek in 39th at 22:39, Ramzes Hernandez in 53rd at 23:57, and Malik Huntington in 58th at 24:55.
Coach Comments
Fairfield head coach Jerrod Belzer was thrilled with the night, particularly the boys’ first team win in five seasons. “Our kids were really grateful for the opportunity to just get out and compete,” Belzer said. “It’s a challenging course, especially with the amount of rain we’ve got lately but they handled it exceptionally well and their times were better than we could have imagined. Happy for our guys to get the first team win in five seasons. Not only is our depth a difference maker for us but we continue to have guys pushing towards the front pack with Brice and Elijah. We had 40 seconds between our number one and five which is really impressive and I think that number will continue to get even smaller.” Belzer also praised the girls despite being shorthanded. “Hats off to our girls as well — we were missing a key piece in Madilyn Miller last night but the other five stepped up and had great individual races.”
Van Buren County head coach Lucinda DeHart was proud of how her team handled the unique challenge of competing on their home course. “VBC hosted a cross-country meet tonight on what I would consider a true cross-country course,” DeHart said. “The runners competed over a variety of terrain, including grass, hard-surface roads, gravel, and wooded trails. The recent rain also made some sections of the course muddy and slick, adding another challenge for the runners.” DeHart was pleased the meet expanded to include additional teams and welcomed the new competition. “We were excited to welcome several new teams to the meet this year. Some of those teams had meets canceled because of the recent heavy rain, so we were happy to be able to give them an opportunity to compete.”
On her team’s performance, DeHart said both squads proved themselves against tough competition. “Our VBC teams had another strong night. The girls continued to run competitively and finished first as a team. They have consistently shown that they can compete with anyone they line up against, and tonight was another great example of that. The boys finished fourth as a team, competing against several larger schools. Once again, they continue to prove themselves and show that they can compete with teams that have significantly larger numbers.” DeHart closed with a look ahead toward the championship portion of the season. “As we move further into the season, I think our teams are continuing to show their strengths. We have a lot of season left, and I believe the work these runners are putting in will continue to show as we get into the bigger meets and championship portion of the season.”
