By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The Fluco baseball team under Coach Joel Gray went to the Region C finals again. In its first post-season game the team shut out the Allegheny County Cougars 8-0 with an eight run second inning. The Flucos moved on to the semi-finals. On May 25 they topped the East Rockingham Eagles 12-2, scoring 11 runs in the third inning. Coach Gray has said that this is not his most talented offensive team ever, but it is clear that once they get rolling, they really get rolling. The win over the Eagles took the Flucos to the Region C final against powerful and undefeated Liberty Christian Academy (LCA). The Fluco lost to LCA for the third time this season by a 13-3 score.
By reason of their second place finish in the Region C tournament the Flucos qualified for the State Class 3 tournament. The Virginia High School League, which governs public high school sports in the Commonwealth, has established 6 classes of high schools based on the size of the schools’ student bodies. Class 3 schools are the smaller mid-sized high schools. There are four regions in each class. Two teams from each region go to the state tournament. In the first round that was played on June 4, the Flucos faced the number one team from Region D which is southwestern Virginia. At the time of this writing, that winning team was not yet known. If they win, they go to the semi final on June 7 and another win sends them to the state final on June 8 where they could meet LCA for the fourth time. If LCA wins it all as is expected, the second place team will be the best public school team in Virginia in Class 3, as LCA is a private religious high school, that plays against public schools as a result of litigation.
The Fluco track and field team turned in some fine performances at the Class 3 Region C event. The relay teams continued to excel. The girls 4X800 team finished first in the region. The team consisted of Sydney Chipperfield, Ruby Frazier, Anna Amato and Sophie Farley. The girls 4X400 team which consisted of the same runners finished fifth. For the boys, the 4X100 team was third. The team consisted of Diver Davis, Logan Wade, Jackson Fields and Garrett Jordan. In the 4X400 relay the boys did one position better than the girl, taking fourth. This team consisted of Jordan, Davis, Jack Jeffries and Elias Morris.
The Flucos also had some outstanding individual performances. For the girls, Farley was the first place finisher in the 800 meter run (the metric half mile), and Frazier was fifth in the 1600 meter (the metric mile). For the boys, Jordan was second in the 400 meter, Morris was sixth in the 800 meter, Davis was sixth in the 300 meter hurdles and Jesse Woolstenhulme was fifth in the pole vault. Both the boys and girls teams are coached by Melanie Kennedy.
