One state goal fell just short while another has been created.
Fairfield boys tennis’ Garrett Stoltzfus was on the doorstep at becoming the second Fairfield individual to win a state title in 2024, but came up two wins short of infamy. Stoltzfus made the semi-finals of the IHSAA Boys Tennis State Finals in Indianapolis, winning eight matches in the state tournament before bowing out to eventual state champion Hank Lin of Columbus North. Lin, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, did what no one had done in Stoltzfus’ previous 30 matches, get ahead of Stoltzfus and break his serve, to which Lin would go on to claim a 6-2, 6-3 win in the state semi-finals. Lin later beat Center Grove’s Tyler Lane, 6-4, 6-2, to win the state title.
Stoltzfus finished his senior season 30-1 overall and exits with nearly every major tennis record at Fairfield, including career wins, season wins, and deepest run in the state tournament a Falcon has ever made.
Meanwhile, three hours north, Fairfield sophomore Evan Correll started writing his first state chapter. The Falcon course ace managed to align his race with the first wave of runners and stayed in that position. On a somewhat wide open stretch of New Prairie cross country race track, Correll did enough to not sink into a third wave of runners, posting a 16:18 final time and 12th place overall, good for one of the automatic qualifier spots for the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals this weekend in Terre Haute.
This is the first state appearance for Correll, who finished way down at 130th overall as a freshman at the New Prairie Regional, and was also two full minutes faster than his freshman post.
Fairfield did have other representation at the regional, but none qualified for state. On the boys side, Carson Correll finished 75th overall in the race at 17:28, Caden Harris was 95th at 17:41 and Kaden Decker was 128th at 18:09. The final time to make it to state from the boys race was 16:30.
On the girls side, Fairfield had three runners compete, and none were close to qualification. Lyla Dennis was the top runner for Fairfield with a time of 21:28, but was nowhere near the final qualifying time of 20:03, Dennis over 60 spots back of the magic number. Lorelei Shively finished at 21:55 and Claira Foust at 22:19 to round out the Lady Falcons. Natalee Lambright had qualified for regionals, but did not race.
Of note from the regional, Westview’s Noah Bontrager won the boys race at 15:13 and is positioned as one of the favorites next weekend at the LaVern Gibson Championship course. And Wawasee’s Mia Hodgson qualified for state with an eighth-place time of 19:07.
Area teams to qualify for state from New Prairie include Penn’s boys and girls, Goshen’s girls and Northridge’s boys, the Raiders were regional team champions.
Fairfield has set a bar for itself this season on the gridiron. If the Falcons score 42 or more points, they are 5-0 this season. That held true Friday night as Fairfield advanced into the Class 3-A Sectional 26 football semi-finals with a 48-34 win over visiting Fort Wayne Concordia.
The game wasn’t a blowout by any stretch as the Cadets looked poised to make it a one-score game in the fourth quarter after creating a turnover and were poised to score sitting at the Fairfield one. But on the next play, Blake Metzger stepped in front of a fade route for the interception, and the Falcons later scored to make it a 14-point swing to seal the deal.
Metzger led the team with 11 tackles and added 100 rushing yards and a touchdown to his full plate. Hunter Kauffman made a handful of huge plays, getting two strip sacks and also throwing for a two-point conversion to go with a rushing touchdown.
Breckan Maran led the Falcons with 195 yards and three touchdowns, Brandt Sark hauled in a 48-yard touchdown pass and Kahler Maust hustled 38 yards for a touchdown.
Fairfield (5-5) will visit West Noble (9-1) Friday night in the sectional semi-finals, opposite Garrett (10-0) at Tippecanoe Valley (7-3).