Spartan Boys Defend FAVC Title, Girls Runner-Up
Although the win was not by as convincing a margin as last year, the Spartan boys were still able to defend their FAVC Cardinal Division title for the third consecutive year. And unfortunately, the Spartan girls settled for second place for the second straight year, losing to Kings by just three points. A special congratulations goes to Coach Gossett for winning FAVC Coach-of-the-Year honors.
As has become the custom this year, Nicholas El-Khoury led the Spartans from the start. El-Khoury was the first Cardinal division finisher and second overall with a time of 16:18, getting just beaten out by Milford runner Austin Bever. Dave Rodriguez was the second Cardinal finisher, with a solid finishing time of 16:53. Drew DiSabatino finished fifth in 17:08, and Alex Polivka ran under eighteen minutes for the second time finishing in 17:54. Jack Reeder rounded out the scoring Spartans placing seventeenth in 18:14, just ahead of Zach Smith who finished in 18:17. Joe Murray, hampered by a hip injury, finished his season with a time of 18:52. Although the Spartan boys did win the Cardinal Division, they would have lost to Milford, Loveland, and rival Anderson had the Cardinal and Buckeye results been combined.
The girls fell just short of winning their division despite sold finishes from the Spartan girls one, two, and three runners. Kaitlin Price and Meghan Plichta took turns leading the Spartans throughout the race. Plichta charged ahead of Price in the second half of the race, but was out then outkicked in the final meters finishing just behind Price with respective times of 19:27 and 19:28, good for second and third place. Lauren Young finished in seventh place in 19:48, just behind a group of three Kings runners. Unfortunately, the fourth and fifth Kings runner finished ahead of Jillian Jaworek and Victoria Clancey, who finished together in 20:50 and 20:51, respectively. Lauren Keene finished in 20:57 and Alexia Yun was the final Spartan, finishing in 22:04. The Turpin girls scored 35 points to the Kings girls’ 32 points.