Caissons Cross Country Continues to Improve

Recap by Coach Tankard

FISHERSVILLE– Despite some setbacks, the Fishburne Military School Cross Country team put up another strong performance over the weekend. At the Augusta County XC Invitational, injuries and TOEFL tests reduced the Caissons roster so much that an eighth grader had to step up to complete the 5-man roster for a scoring Varsity team. 8th-grader Michael Ball (Reston, VA) volunteered for the challenge and scored for the team and kept the team’s streak alive of beating all other private schools in attendance.

Almost all the Caisson runners improved from last Saturday’s race.

Sophomore Garrett Rose (Columbus, IN) again lead the way with a time of 19:42, which was a 40 second improvement over the same course last year and a notch better than his  20:04 from last weekend.  Mitchell Cooper (Manakin Sabot, VA) and Riley Malone (Wayneboro, VA) were neck-and-neck at the finish with Cooper besting Malone by a second while getting another personal record by dropping 24 seconds from last Saturday to 20:59. Malone’s 21:00 was 1 minute 4 seconds better than his performance last Saturday, also for a personal record.

Yuan Pu (Hecheng, China) and Michael Ball rounded out the FMS five. Without Ball’s efforts the Caissons would not have outscored Grace Christian and Eastern Mennonite.

Most of the teams in attendance were local 2A and 3A public schools who started regular practice at the beginning of August. The next 2 weeks of practice, if executed well, will make a huge difference in catching up with those teams. That stiff competition returns on Sept. 30 at New Market Battlefield hosted by Stonewall Jackson High School.

Afterwards, the schedule shifts more to fellow VIC conference foes.

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Fishburne Military School is the oldest and smallest of all military schools for boys in Virginia. Its college-prep curriculum is built on the structure of an Army JROTC program. FMS has been designated as a JROTC Honor Unit with Distinction and may nominate qualified candidates to the United States Service Academies. Fishburne hosts one of only four Summer JROTC programs in the nation that is accredited by US Army Cadet Command.