Indians sweep the Expo

By Josh Laprevotte Correspondent
Published: September 24, 2008

FISHERSVILLE — Fort Defiance dominated both races Wednesday night in a Southern Valley tri-meet hosted by Stuarts Draft at Expoland.

The girls started the evening’s first race as they sprinted down the hill in a close pack, but after the first mile only Fort’s Whitney Fulk and Faith Lucas and Waynesboro’s Merideth Figgatt could be seen.

As fans gathered around the finish line the Indians’ Fulk crossed the line first with a time of 20-minutes, 37-seconds. Figgatt finished second with a time of 20:54 and Lucas crossed with a time of 21:42. Fort’s Annie Shreckhise and Draft’s Caroline Perkins rounded out the top five.

Fort won the girls race with a score of 28 followed by Waynesboro with 44 and Stuarts Draft at 52.

Each team had at least three runners in the top ten, but Fort was able to finish strong in the middle of the pack to get the win.

Fulk was impressed with her time and her team’s performance on a difficult track.

“I am satisfied with my performance and my team’s,” said Fulk. “ This track had a lot of hills which made it tough.”

Draft coach Steve Bridge was impressed with how his girls were getting better every time out.

“We’re working on things and we’re trying to get better and I think we’re improving every week.”

The boys race was also a show put on by the Indians. They crossed with eight of the top-ten runners to claim the victory. Fort’s Andrew Phillips was the winner with a time of 17:50 followed closely by Waynesboro’s Edward Ennis who finished in 18:09.

The Indians won with 19 points with Waynesboro finishing second with 51 and Draft had 82.

Draft was without four of their top-seven runners, but John Miller was able to finish in the top ten with a time of 19:50.

Defending Southern Valley Champion Lucas Moffett fell out of contention with a medical condition after the second mile, but was OK.

The Little Giants are improving drastically and head coach Julie Stevens is proud of how her team is coming along. Stevens knew today was going to be a tough for them because they were still tired from Saturday’s meet.

“I think their times were good especially since they were still tired from Saturday,” Stevens said. “This track was tough and I was glad I was a coach and not a runner today.”

The track at Expoland was a hard one to judge for the runners as well as the coaches. Fort coach David Stewart told his girls before the race that the back half of the track is much harder than the first half because of all the hills.

“I told them before the race that they have to save there energy because once they finish that first mile they see nothing but hills in front of them,” Stewart said.

Stewart and Fulk both thought this track would be slow, but they found out that is wasn’t as slow as they had predicted.

“It was a tough track but it wasn’t as slow as I thought it was going to be,” Fulk said. “It had a lot of hills though,” said Fulk with a smile.