The Fairfield girls and boys cross country teams delivered one of their best performances of the season Tuesday, September 22nd at the Mount Pleasant Invitational, with the girls claiming their first team victory in eight years and the boys finishing a strong second — all while navigating some muddy conditions on the course.
Girls Results
Fairfield won the girls 3A/4A division team title with 48 points, edging out Fort Madison with 55, Mount Pleasant with 70, Washington with 72, and Oskaloosa with 83. Keokuk was also present but did not have enough runners to score as a team. The meet featured every Southeast Conference team except Burlington, with Oskaloosa serving as a preview of a future conference opponent.
No. 10-ranked Josie Dykstra of WACO won the overall individual title across both divisions at 19:17. In the 3A/4A division, No. 15-ranked Avery Fedler of Mount Pleasant was the top finisher at 20:09. Alex Jo Steward led Fairfield in fourth place at 21:07, followed by freshman Ava Jones in sixth at 21:10, Kensley Fligg in eighth at 22:07, Madilyn Miller in 13th at 22:33, Naomi Stiemsma rounded out Fairfield’s scoring five in 17th at 22:56, with Fernanda Baez adding a sixth finisher in 38th at 28:59.
In the 1A/2A division, No. 1-ranked Mid-Prairie dominated with 30 points, followed by No. 18-ranked Central Lee in second with 69 points.
Boys Results
Washington won the boys 3A/4A division team title with 46 points, followed by Fairfield in second with 68. Oskaloosa and Fort Madison tied for third with 75 points each, followed by Keokuk fifth with 106 and Mount Pleasant sixth with 107. Like the girls race, the meet featured every Southeast Conference team except Burlington, with Oskaloosa serving as a preview of a future conference opponent.
No. 20-ranked Max Swartzentruber of Mid-Prairie won the overall boys title across both divisions at 16:40.003, with Parker Tschantz of Washington just behind at 16:40.210 to win the 3A/4A division. Fairfield was led by Elijah Hamilton in eighth at 17:51, Brice Boatright in 10th at 17:59, Parker Reid in 13th at 18:26, Kalen Patterson in 18th at 18:45, Liam Dowd-Robbins in 19th at 18:56, John Miller in 23rd at 19:10, Elisha Vander Linden in 30th at 19:39, Aaron Wellnitz in 31st at 19:41, Sam Nelson in 40th at 20:40, Jordan Miller in 41st at 20:44, Elijah Bar-Shimon in 51st at 21:57, Sawyer McCready in 52nd at 21:59, Aiden Holthus in 55th at 22:08, Kellen Copeland in 57th at 22:14, Daniel Snyder in 61st at 23:08, Cael Guffey in 63rd at 23:41, Kris Powell in 64th at 23:52, Quimby Scotton in 69th at 26:05, and Alex Hudson in 70th at 26:42.
In the 1A/2A division, No. 20-ranked Central Lee won the team title with 50 points, with Mediapolis close behind in second with 55 points.
Coach Belzer’s Thoughts
Head coach Jerrod Belzer could not have been more pleased with the night. “We couldn’t be happier with our performance tonight,” Belzer said. “We told them before the meet that they’re down to three races before conference so they need to start running like every race is a postseason race — and they certainly answered the call. Out of our 25 kids that competed, we had 16 PRs with an average PR of 51 seconds.”
Belzer highlighted the significance of the girls’ victory. “It was a total team effort for the girls to get that win. Only having six you need everyone each night and those girls all stepped up in a big way. That was the first win for our girls program in eight years.”
On the boys side, Belzer noted the team performed without one of their key contributors. “The boys ran without River Fulton, who’s been our number three guy most of the season, but they went out and performed better than we could have imagined. Elijah, Brice, and Parker were certainly important for us up front but so many other guys stepped up and ran well too — John Miller, Liam Robbins, Kalen Patterson, and Elisha Vander Linden were all huge for their team’s success.”
Belzer said the team will enjoy the results but knows more work lies ahead. “We’ll enjoy the successes tomorrow but we know we still have a lot of work to do to achieve our goals in October.”
