The girls golf season ended for Fairfield last Friday at the East Noble Regional. Both Mallory McGowen and Bella Blosser competed as individuals, but could not squeeze into the top three to advance to state. McGowen had a good back nine, drawing a pair of birdies to conclude her season with an 87, but was 10 shots back of the final advancing spot to the IHSAA State Finals. Blosser had a tough round, ending with a 95, but both competed in a loaded field that had Northridge win the regional title with a 330, DeKalb one shot back at 331, and Homestead needing a fifth-man score to claim the last team spot away from Fort Wayne Carroll at 337. Taylor Larkins of Carroll (72), Sophie Richmond of NorthWood (72) and Abbie Peterson of Warsaw (77) all made state as individuals.
Cross country added another milestone to its season Saturday, the boys team winning its first-ever team title at the Culver Academy Invite! A championship performance by Evan Correll, who won the Closed Division race at 16:40, paced Fairfield’s title march. Carson Correll was eighth overall (17:47), Caden Harris 11th (17:57), Kaden Decker 27th (18:27) and Dillon Fussle 58th (19:33). South Bend St. Joe was team runner-up, 30 points back of Fairfield’s 101 points.
The girls were clustered atop the girls team standings, St. Joe (86) edging out Westview (87), Maconaquah (89) and Fairfield (105) for the team title. Natalee Lambright paced the Lady Falcons with an eighth place finish of 20:56, followed by Lyla Dennis (11th, 21:08), Lorelei Shively (24, 22:03), Claira Foust (29, 22:12) and Emma Walter (44, 23:02).
Fairfield currently has championship aspirations in four of five courts at the NECC Boys Tennis Championships. Rain halted play Saturday at Lakeland, where Garrett Stoltzfus is up 6-1, 5-0 at one singles; Drew Beachy is up 6-2, 1-0 at two singles; Brant Garber and Andrew Mathews are up 5-2 at one doubles; and Grady Garber and Cameron Cripe are on deck to start play at two doubles. Conner LeCount is up 6-4, 4-1 in the third place match at three singles. Play resumes this evening at Lakeland, and the IHSAA State Tourney draw is also this evening, laying out the road map to the state tournament, beginning with sectional play this week at NorthWood.
Bethany gave Fairfield a wake-up call ahead of the postseason as the two battled to a 3-2 Falcon win last Monday night in Waterford Mills. Stoltzfus continued to run undefeated in the regular season with a love, two win, but the Bruins captured the other singles wins. Fairfield rallied with both doubles wins, Brant Garber and Mathews a three, four win at one dubs, and Cripe and Grady Garber a 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 slugfest at two dubs.
Angola were not proper hosts Friday night in football, blowing past Fairfield 47-8. The Hornets bottled up Breckan Maran to just 18 yards on seven carries, and limited the Falcons to 194 yards in the contest, most of which came in chase mode in the second half. Hunter Kauffman had the lone touchdown for the offense, but had a game-high 17.5 tackles on the defensive side of the ball. Elijah Miller added five stops for Fairfield.
A busy week for Lady Falcon volleyball, going 1-6 in varsity action across four dates. Last Monday, Fairfield lost 3-0 at New Prairie, Eva Herbert and Lacy Stoltzfus combining for 10 kills and three blocks. Ariana Schwartz added 15 digs. Elli Yoder had 21 digs and Herbert totaled 14 kills, but Fairfield couldn’t rally past Northridge in a 3-1 loss at home Tuesday during its Pink Out Night. Back in NECC play Thursday, West Noble held court in a 3-0 win. Maddy Miller had 12 assists, nine digs, three blocks and an ace. At Saturday’s Warsaw Invite, Fairfield beat Rochester, 2-0, but lost to Leo, Fort Wayne Snider and Plymouth by similar scores. For the tourney, Herbert had 19 kills, Yoder had 39 digs, Miller had 35 assists and Stoltzfus had 10 blocks.
In JV action, Fairfield beat New Prairie 2-0, lost to Northridge 2-0, beat West Noble 2-0, and at Saturday’s Fairfield Tourney, beat Westview 2-0, lost to Culver 2-1 and lost to John Glenn 2-0.
Over the week games, Jenna Fought had 24 assists, 18 digs and seven aces, Camila Campos had nine kills and Shelby Cripe added 13 digs in the New Prairie win.
The Fairfield C Team picked up a 2-0 win against West Noble.
And in junior high volleyball, the 6/7/8 teams all swept their contests, first Monday against Prairie Heights, and then Thursday against West Noble.
And one more note, Fairfield cheer competed on Saturday at the Lake Central Invite. The junior high placed third overall and the varsity were second in their respective divisions in the region.