Fairfield captured its first boys tennis sectional title since 2018 with a 3-2 win over Bethany Christian in the championship match at the NorthWood Boys Tennis Sectional.
Fairfield had both of its doubles teams win in about the same amount of time, the two dubs tandem of Grady Garber and Cameron Cripe fending off Malachi Yoder and Ethan Claasen, two and two, and in a spirited match on the opposite end, Brant Garber and Andrew Mathews put away Emerson Landis and Keagan Meyer, 6-3, 7-5. That put the focus on singles, where Garrett Stoltzfus put the Falcons in the win column permanently with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Noah Schrock, bringing both doubles teams out to celebrate with the Falcon ace.
Bethany would salvage some solace with a 7-6 (6), 7-5 win from Judah Miller over Conner LeCount at three singles and a 6-1, 6-4 win at two singles from Gideon Miller over Drew Beachy.
Starting off the sectional, Fairfield knocked off Goshen, 4-1. Stoltzfus and LeCount were winners on the singles courts, and both doubles tandems won in straights. Fairfield made the title match with a 4-1 win over the host Panthers Thursday afternoon. Stoltzfus and two dubs won via shutout and both Drew Beachy and one dubs won in straights.
Fairfield will take on Elkhart Tuesday afternoon back at NorthWood in the regional semi-finals, the winner to face either Penn or Wawasee in Wednesday’s regional championship. Fairfield’s only two team losses this season are to Penn and Wawasee, the Falcons and Lions did not play in the regular season but scrimmaged against one another in the preseason.
Fairfield swept the Northeast Corner Conference Boys Tennis tournament for the second straight season. Fairfield wrapped up championships on four of the five courts, and took third on the fifth court, to score 60 team points to run away with the tourney title, which capped an 8-0 NECC regular season.
Stoltzfus continued to play at an elite level, allowing just one point the entire tournament, winning 6-1, 6-0 in the one singles final. Beachy claimed honors at two singles, beating Angola 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, and LeCount rallied from a semi-final loss to Fremont to beat Westview for third.
At one doubles, Garber and Mathews held off Angola, 6-2, 7-6 (3) in the championship, and at two doubles, Garber and Cripe won a wild 2-6, 7-6 (0), 7-5 marathon against Fremont in the championship match.
All six of the court champion players earned All-NECC honors for their work.
Volleyball’s regular season is winding down, and saw the team split its two varsity contests last week. Tuesday at home against Marian, Fairfield battled but came up short in a tight 3-1 loss. Maddy Miller had a big night with 25 assists, 16 digs, four aces and two blocks. Eva Herbert added 13 kills. In the 2-0 loss in the JV game, Macy Morehouse provided five blocks, three kills and an ace.
In the 3-0 win at Central Noble Thursday night, Ariana Schwartz had nine digs, four kills and three aces while Elli Yoder added eight digs and five aces. The JV lost to the Cougars, 2-0. Kenedy Griffin had five digs in the match.
Fairfield drew a bye and will take on either NorthWood or Tippecanoe Valley in the second semi-final of the West Noble Volleyball Sectional set to take place next week. Wawasee and West Noble play in game one, with Columbia City getting that winner in the first semi-final.
Fairfield could not find a way to slow down Class 3-A No. 4 Garrett in a 42-12 home football loss Friday night. The Railroaders kept Fairfield’s offense at bay by allowing just 150 total yards, 73 of those by Breckan Maran. Fairfield had its most pass attempts of the season with 14, one of those a halfback pass touchdown from Hunter Kauffman to Cole Knight.
Kauffman again led the defense with a team-high 12.5 tackles.
West Noble swept the boys and girls NECC Cross Country Championships over the weekend, the girls edging out Prairie Heights by two points and the boys topping Angola by six points. Fairfield was third in the boys standings and fourth in the girls standings.
Evan Correll led the boys team with a time of 16:25, good for fourth overall at the meet. The boys roster took a hit with the absence of varsity regular Caden Harris, but had Carson Correll (10th place, 17:42) and Kaden Decker (13th, 17:46) earn All-NECC honors along with Evan Correll. Levi Sydor (34, 19:06) and Dillon Fussle (35, 19:07) also scored for Fairfield.
Lyla Dennis led the Fairfield girls, finishing 9th overall at 20:53. All five of Fairfield’s runners earned All-NECC honors, with Natalee Lambright (10, 21:23), Claira Foust (13, 21:44), joining Dennis as All-NECC and Lorelei Shively (21, 22:19) and Emma Walter (22, 22:21) getting Honorable Mention and were the fourth and fifth scorers for the Lady Falcons.
Westview’s Noah Bontrager won the boys race at 15:24 and Prairie Heights’ Ashlynn Myers claimed honors in the girls race at 19:13.
Cross Country has a week off before preparing for the Elkhart Cross Country Sectional at OxBow Park on Oct. 19.
Middle school cross country had a great showing at Tuesday’s NECC meet, producing a meet champion. Layna Stoltzfus won the girls race with an overall championship time of 12:10, and Lilly Smythe also landed in the top 25 with a time of 13:36. The girls team finished sixth overall in the team standings, using points from Ellie Carl, Gabrielle Peachey and Aurora Lehman.
The boys team had Bently Smythe take a top-five spot, finishing third overall at 10:42 in a hotly contested race to the finish. The Falcons had three more land inside the top 25 in Gavin Harlan (11:43), Kayden Harris (11:44) and Evan Moreland (11:56). Hudson Cripe also scored points for Fairfield.