Fairfield sprints to second straight SEC title

FORT MADISON ? A year ago, Fairfield stopped a string of Mount Pleasant conference titles at 14.

At Tuesday?s Southeast Conference meet in Fort Madison, the Trojans proved they want a streak of their own.

Fairfield blew away the rest of the field picked up its second straight conference title while Mount Pleasant fell to fourth. The Trojans? 111 points was well out in front of an otherwise tight race that saw three points separate place 2-4. Keokuk (68) was second, Washington (67) edged out Mount Pleasant (66) and Fort Madison was fifth (54).

?It?s nice to have our own string of championships now ? even though it?s only two,? said Fairfield head coach Ron Hunerdosse. ?It?s a group of seniors that know the situation and a group of freshmen that have given us the chance to show our depth all year and filled the holes.?

Libbey Schubert had already proved several times to be the best sprinter in the conference, but Sydney Howard made it clear the second best also wears orange and black as the two finished 1-2 in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes.

Schubert swept through the three open sprint events, and as much as she has dominated on the track the past four years, the freshman Howard now has a good chance to do so for the next three. Schubert won the 100 in 12.49, the 200 in a career-best 25.80 and the 400 in 59.97. Howard was second in the 100 in 12.49 and 200 in 26.47.

The pair also ran legs on the conference-title winning 4x100 (51.64) relay team along with Edna Jones and Kiersten Vaughan.

The Trojans began the night with personal bests in both the discus from second-place finisher Sidney Baumann (107? 8.5?) and the 3,000 from third-place finisher Holly Kerr (11:54). Jessica Lamb was just ahead of Kerr in the 3,000 (11:41) and began the trend of double-placing that Schubert and Howard continued.

Lamb and Kerr also double-placed in the 800 before Lamb finally finished her night ? a night that included nearly four miles spread through four events ? with another runner-up finish in the 1500 (5:28) ahead of third-place Hannah Sobaski (5:34).

Those finishes for Baumann, Lamb, Kerr, Sobaski and Howard ? all freshmen ? showed once more that the future of Trojan track and field appears bright.

?The seniors will definitely be missed, but we have a nice nucleus and on paper, we look great.? Hunerdosse said. ?Having the freshman class that we do was huge, but we?ll live each year as it comes ? you never know what can happen.?

One of those seniors that has been even bigger for Fairfield was Katie Hammes who was once again a rock for Hunerdosse to lean on in the field events. Hammes was second in the shot put (37? 10.5?0 and third in the discus (106? 11?) behind Baumann.

The Trojans will now hope for another big night at Friday?s Class 3A regional meet in Mount Pleasant.