Fair Grove High School’s track and field teams are closing out a record breaking season. With dominant performances across all events, both the girls and boys teams have their sights set on finishing strong and getting a chance at state championships.
This season, Fair Grove athletes have consistently raised the bar at each meet, showing depth, determination, and improvement in all events. Under the leadership of head coaches Michael Zanzie, Lindsay Martin and Brian Neumann, both the boys and girls teams took home the Mid Lakes Conference titles later becoming a standout moment to Zanzie. “This is a new conference that expanded from four to eight schools,” he shared. “The day before conference the boys were projected to win by two points and the girls 11. The girls ended up winning by 50 points… The boys ended up winning by 85.”
Martin also spoke highly of the team’s achievements, pointing out there were too many outstanding moments to choose just one. “They have exceeded expectations. Our boys and girls athletes have broken countless school records and continue to do so each meet,” she shared. “Honestly all of our seniors stand out for leadership by example… They’re a historic group of boys and girls!”
Senior athletes have played a major role, not only by competing well but also by motivating teammates and encouraging hard work. For the throwing group, Neumann shared, “The athletes that have really stepped up for the team have to be Steven Lederich (12), Sofee Garrett (11), and Kade Brunkhorst (12).” All three athletes are captains of their respective events and according to Neumann have helped the team in many ways by showing leadership, encouragement, and skilled performances at meets. He added, “We broke another Javelin record this year and we are on track to break the boys shot put record and the discus records in both boys and girls!”
For both the athletes and coaches, the focus now turns to postseason preparation. “Getting our minds and bodies prepared for the next two weeks of the season,” said Zanzie. “They have put in the work, now they just have to get their bodies back to peak form and get their minds envisioning success.”
Fair Grove will compete in sectionals Saturday May 17th, at Mountain Grove, where they hope to carry their season long momentum through and into state. With state as the end goal for all the coaches and many athletes, the team has been working hard and see it as a very real possibility for many of the athletes to qualify.
Editor’s Note: After the publication date of this article we now have more information on which students qualified for state for track and field for the 2024-2025 season. Below is the link to the class three sectional results which contains a list of the Fair Grove track and field athletes who qualified for state, their place, and which event(s) they qualified for.
https://mo.milesplit.com/meets/678288-mshsaa-class-3-sectional-3-2025/results
Qualifiers include; Seniors: Brooke Daniels, Steven Lederich, Kade Brunkhorst, Canyon Crowley, Kellen Lair, Brock Bruner, Emma Padgett and Carter Roy. Juniors Dylan George and Adrick Wilson. Sophomores: Katrina Cantwell, McKenna Zanzie, and Sage Crowley.
