One defending state cross country champion will have to rebuild, while the other appears to have reloaded for another competitive season. 

Fayetteville’s boys had all five runners finish in the top 20 en route to winning its state title last fall, but four of those have graduated. The Purple’Dogs, however, can regroup around sophomore Camren Fischer, who was last year’s state runnerup. 

Fayetteville, however, still has some competitive runners. Senior Ben Farrell and Joel Burgess and sophomore Nicholas Pilkington all finished in the top 30 last year. 

“He’s a good one,” Fayetteville coach Michelle Fyfe said of Fischer. “But we’re going to be very young. We have one senior in our top six right now, and we’re pretty inexperienced. We also have a freshman in our top five right now.” 

“We have a great group of kids who are trying to get better, so the future is bright. These runners will have to learn how to race and when it’s time to go and when not to go, but it’s a great group that is working hard.”