Fairfield High School’s boys cross country team, along with individual girls qualifier Ciara Colwell, traveled to National Trail Raceway on Saturday to take part in the Division III State cross country meet.
Colwell was the first competitor from Fairfield to take the course of Saturday.
Colwell put on a tremendous performance in her first state meet as she finished as the 29th runner overall.
Colwell set a steady pace for herself in the first mile of the races as she worked her way through the pack, topping out at number 26.
The second and third miles of the race saw Colwell drop three spots to her finishing position.
Colwell narrowly missed being an All-Ohio runner as only the top 20 athletes receive the recognition.
The boys team for the Lions took part in the fourth race of the day.
The Lions were led by senior Noah Richmond who took home 11th place overall and earned All-Ohio honors for the second consecutive year.
Richmond pushed himself to the limit in the race to finish with a time of 16:16.9.
Richmond made big moves up the leader board as he was 39th at the one mile mark, 22nd at the two mile mark and made up the final 11 spots over the last mile of the race.
Matthew Mangus, also a senior, took home 33rd place with a time of 16:46.4.
After improving his position by 16 spots between mile one and mile two Mangus dropped two spots over the final mile of the race.
Bennett Hodson claimed 59th in the race with a time of 17:01.3.
Hodson improved his positioning by 16 spots over the final stretch to help the Lions secure their top four team finish.
Austin Setty was the fourth runner for the Lions to cross the finish line in 86th place with a time of 17:19.2.
Setty ran a good race but was unable to maintain his position dropping a total of 11 spots from the one mile mark to the finish.
Andrew Davis was next for the Lions as he finished 89th with a time of 17:22.7.
Andrew finished strong as he improved his final position by 10 spots over the last leg of the course.
Brandtson Duffie placed 119th in the race with a time of 17:52.7, at one point in the race Duffie had cracked the top 100 runners but he was unable to maintain his position.
Ethan Davis rounded out the Lions team with a 127th place finish in a time of 17:56.2, Ethan made incremental improvement throughout the race to earn his final position.
The fourth place finish marks the fifth year in a row that the Lions have placed in the state cross country meet and their second consecutive fourth place team finish.
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
