On Tuesday night, Fairbanks High School will be the place to be, as the annual Farmbanks XC Invitational is slated to take place. In the late summer sunlight, the Panther MS and HS cross country teams will take to their home course against a load of other schools including Buckeye Valley, Delaware Christian, Fairlawn, Gilead Christian, Marion Harding, Pleasant, and Russia. On the front lawn of the high school, the Cow Chip Bingo will be certain to captivate attendees, who will wait with bated breath to see which square will be the lucky one. Chocolate milk will flow freely, like water from a burbling spring, and the Panther cross country teams will be looking to take home team trophies on their home turf.
It is also senior night, and Fairbanks will be honoring two senior runners, Rachael Hoover and Kayden Fields. “Kayden and Rachael have been huge for our program,” said Head Coach Mike Van Winkle. “Obviously what Rachael has done is unprecedented in the history of our school, holding the school record for the past few years, but Kayden has also brought a lot of positive joy to our program and helped our girls’ team out a great deal. It’ll be a bittersweet night as we get to watch these warriors run the home course one last time.” According to Hoover, “I’m going to miss running here so much; this is the course where I learned how to run cross country. It’s really exciting to wrap up six years in this program and to end it with a two-miler like I ran when I was a 7th grader. Also, I’ve made my college decision, and so it’ll be exciting to announce that during senior night.”
Meet Schedule:
4:00pm—Senior Night and Summer Mileage Awards
4:30pm—Cow Chip Bingo begins
4:40pm—Coaches’ Meeting
4:45pm—Youth Run—1 mile run.
5:00pm—MS Girls—2 mile race
5:25pm—HS Girls—2 mile race
5:50pm—MS Boys—2 mile race
6:15pm—HS Boys—2 mile race
6:35pm—Awards
7:00pm—Cow Chip Bingo Winner