2 weeks Ago
CHAMPAIGN — It’s never bad to have Will Fuson or Farah Scott on your team. They both broke onto the area cross-country scene last year, Fuson as a sophomore for Cerro Gordo/Bement and Scott as a freshman for Centennial, and left their teammates in awe. “I wish I could do it,” Broncos senior John Paul Brewer said of Fuson.
“I try to do it, but I always get trapped at some point. When I go out too fast, I always run out of breath really quickly. He does it pretty well, and I don’t know how.
” “If we go out and start running as a group, she basically gets out ahead of everyone right at the start,” Chargers senior Nicole Granger said of Scott. “A minute in, she’ll be way up ahead of us. You hear about people being really good, and you see it at other schools, but it’s really cool having someone that good on my team.
” Now a year older with sky-high expectations, Fuson and Scott are already showing signs that last year was just a sneak peek at what they can accomplish. After placing 70th at the Class 1A state championships as a freshman in 2022, Fuson went into last season wanting more. “As an underclassman, getting All-State was the goal,” Fuson said.
“That’s all I wanted to do, and I ended up doing way better than I thought I would. I ran faster and placed better than I ever thought I would.” Fuson won the Lincoln Prairie Conference meet and finished 12th at state with a time of 15 minutes, 12.
1 seconds, his best time of the season by nearly 25 seconds and better than his freshman state time by more than a minute and a half. Much of his sophomore success came from trying to track down then-Tuscola seniors Jackson Barrett, Will Foltz and Josiah Hortin, with all three Warriors placing in the top 10 at state and leading Tuscola to its first team state title in program history. “Those three guys are like local legends around here, and everyone knows who they are,” Fuson said.
“They were at like every meet we had, and it was really cool being right behind them. I want to be better than they were.” Meanwhile, Fuson’s own teammates think the same about him.
“Every once in a while, I have a meet where I feel good for the first mile and I’m up with him. Then, the second mile, I’m not with him and pretty far behind,” Cerro Gordo/Bement senior Brayden Strack said. “Back in middle school, it was always a goal of mine to beat Will.
In high school, he’s broken away, so that’s not going to happen. I always use him as motivation. He’s going hard, so I have to go hard.
I use him to help push myself.” Fuson has finished at or near the top of the leaderboard in each of his three races so far this fall, winning the Light It Up meet in Clinton, placing fourth at the Charleston Invitational and taking runner-up at the First to the Finish Invitational in Peoria. As for where he wants to be two months from now, there aren’t too many spots left ahead of him.
But he knows he’ll have plenty of competition. “I want to break 15 minutes, and I want to get top 10 in the state,” Fuson said. “I’ve been looking at the rankings, and those Benton kids are pretty quick.
” It’s also Scott’s expectation to make it back to the Class 2A state meet, where she placed 47th with a season-best time of 18:22.2 last year. The difference — while she was plenty good enough to qualify as an individual with runner-up finishes at the Twin City, Big 12 Conference and regional meets — was that Centennial made it to state as a team and finished 14th.
“It was pretty awesome,” Scott said. “In eighth grade, I also had a really good team, so it was nice to have two very different teams with both being really good back to back.” Scott said she never expected to have that type of success as a freshman, especially having only been serious about distance running since fifth grade after making the tough decision to stop competing in gymnastics.
“It was hard because I loved all the girls in gymnastics, but I was never really good at it,” Scott said with a laugh. “I knew I was good at running from doing Fun Runs and stuff like that, so I decided that would be better. I was always on varsity, even when I was younger, and I knew that wasn’t normal.
” Her mom ran track and cross-country in high school, and her older siblings did the same in middle school, so she was bound to at least have some success with the sport. Scott is having the same type of success to start 2024 as Fuson, taking second at the Charleston Invitational and 13th at the First to the Finish, just a few seconds behind Tuscola sophomore standout Kate Foltz’s pace. Scott’s time of 18:09.
5 from Peoria also broke Centennial’s 3-mile record. Contrary to Fuson’s aspirations, however, Scott plans to simply get the most out of her sophomore season. “Just having fun with it,” Scott said.
“I don’t really have huge expectations for us, but I just want to have fun.” A look back Congratulations to Macen Phillips of Oakwood/Salt Fork boys’ soccer and Sofia Marquez of Centennial girls’ swimming and diving for receiving the most votes in this week’s poll. They are our latest Athletes of the Week and will be featured in next Monday’s sports pages.
Other finalists included Kate Foltz of Tuscola girls’ cross-country, Will Fuson of Cerro Gordo/Bement boys’ cross-country, Addie Kerr of St. Thomas More volleyball, Reis McFarland of Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin volleyball, Jameson Remole of Salt Fork football and Narciso Solorzano of Watseka/Milford boys’ soccer. Be sure to vote in next week’s polls, which open at 9 a.
m. Monday and close at noon the following Thursday. You can find them under the “Prep Sports” tab on news-gazette.
com . Shoutouts Broke her own school record in the 1-meter diving event with a score of 203.05 on Sept.
11, clear of her previous best score by 5.70 points. Reached 1,000 wins as a program with a three-set victory at Peoria Notre Dame on Sept.
12. Won its first game since Oct. 5, 2018, last Friday with a 21-15 home victory over Pontiac.
Farah Scott, Centennial girls’ cross-countrySet a new 3-mile Charger record with a time of 18 minutes, 9.5 seconds last Saturday at the First to the Finish Invitational, besting Brandy Buss’ mark from 2002 by 3.5 seconds.
Recorded her 1,000th career assist with 107 throughout last Saturday’s Clinton Tournament, which the Sabers won with a 5-0 record. Raegan O’Donnell, Lainey Howard, Caroline Mills and Talynn O’Donnell broke the Bulldog record in the event with a time of 1 minute, 43.05 seconds last Saturday at the Springfield Capital City Invite.
The following Tuesday, Karsyn Johnson replaced Mills, and the team lowered that record to 1:42.50. Karsyn Johnson, Callie Lu, Maddie Logsdon and Raegan O’Donnell set a new Bulldog record in the event with a time of 1 minute, 58.
70 seconds on Tuesday..
