The Fountain Hills High School cross country season is in full swing after the team ran in its first two meets, successfully hosting one of them in Fountain Park.

On Sept. 1, the Falcons competed at the Chandler Invitational. Top finishing runners for the Falcons were Lucas Elwood (17:57), Matt McDonald (22:04), David Hampton (23:15), Jack Radford (24:23) and Darrean Smith (26:46).

The local ladies did not field a full squad, but Ava Kalmbach, Stephanie Lies and Anna Nichols had solid runs at 28:13, 29:49 and 35:21, respectively.

On Sept. 8, Fountain Park hosted over 1,100 runners for the Fountain Hills meet. The top three finishers at this meet for FHHS was Lucas Elwood (17:46), Matt McDonald (21:17) and Darrean Smith (23:33)

The next cross country meet is a two-day trip, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 14 and 15, at Woodbridge High School in California.

Cross Country coach, Mary McDonald, was excited for the team’s first meet considering it was the first one for many of her runners.

“I thought the meet went really well,” McDonald said. “For probably about half the team, that was their first cross country meet. So it was a really good place for them to go and see how it came together.”

McDonald said she is happy with the progress her newer runners, such as David Hampton, are making.

“A lot of the new runners we have are sprinters in track,” McDonald said. “So they’re going from running fast, short distance to running longer distances. So that is something they have really risen to the challenge of, which I am really impressed by.”

McDonald is focused on continuing to build on that endurance before the Doug Conley Invitational where many of the Falcons aim to make new personal records.