Nearing the end of the season, the cross country team lined up in its second to last conference meet. The Rangers pushed to show what they are capable of.

The girls ran an amazing race; they finished in third overall. This is the third time they finished third in an OK White race. The girls’ highest runner on the leaderboard was sophomore Mia Bateson, who crossed the finish line in fifth place. Mia improved from ninth place in the last conference meet. She finished with a time of 18:38.58. Five spots behind her in tenth was sophomore Peyton Ludwig, recording a time of 19:16.84. Senior Grace Fitzgerald improved from 52nd place to 19th place since the last Jamboree. She also improved her time by a minute and 30 seconds. 

“We are preparing for the end of the season,” Marissa Lunt said. “We are working hard and putting in more intense training.”

On the boys’ side, they finished in fourth place. In the most recent OK White meet, they finished in third place. Although they dropped one spot, they were able to showcase third-place runner in senior Sam Yeager. Sam crossed the line with a time of 16:07.82. The second runner for FHC to cross the finish line was junior Ethan Krampe in 11th place. He is still coming off an injury and is looking to bounce back for the final races of the season. Sophomore Parker Ludwig and freshman Sawyer McCarthy finished with times of just over 17 minutes. The Rangers are a clear-cut top four team every time in the conference meets and look to improve their overall standings to at least third.

“We are gearing towards the championship part of the season,” head coach Ryan Schipper said.

The cross country team’s next meet will be in the Portage Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, October 9. The boys and girls look to give it their all and hopefully place higher than last time. The ultimate goal is to show that they are capable of qualifying for the state meet.

“We will bring two strong teams to regionals in hopes of qualifying for the state meet,” coach Schipper said.