Thursday, October 14 the Wayne City-Fairfield co-op cross country team set off for an hour and a half haul to Vienna for the Black Diamond Conference Meet. The team had won the conference meet last year, but 4 runners out of the top 6 did not return this year. Fairfield’s Jonathan Paul and Griffen Hinkle improved drastically over the summer and with Junior, Chase Smith, and Sophomore, Brenan Yingst, returning plus the addition of foreign exchange student, Diego Diaz, the Mules once again were favorites to win the conference. Paul said, “We should win today pretty easily, but we can’t let that get into our heads and us not run hard, we have to stay focused and run as best as we can.” The girls’ race was first and Fairfield Freshman Ella Sager took off in the front of the pack. However, at Vienna, the runners started, ran around 300 meters, and then entered the woods where they ran roughly a mile and a fourth down a trail and straight back. When Sager exited the woods, she had fallen to third place and stayed steady to the finish line ending a great race and receiving All-Conference honors. Finally, in the boys’ race, a pack of Vienna runners took off in the lead. That didn’t last long, as the Mules picked it up and passed all of their runners. The Mules finished with a total score of 25 points. Diaz exclaimed, “Victoria!” meaning victory in his native language, as the team was awarded their first place trophy. Wayne City students Diaz and Smith placed third overall and eleventh respectively. Smith told the team, “Great win today boys, but don’t lose focus. Regionals is next up.”