Fall is nearly upon us, and with it comes the start of the 2025-26 school year. At Meridian High School, it also marks the beginning of the season for football, field hockey, volleyball, cross country, golf, and cheerleading, and for the always competitive Mustangs, it should be three months full of excitement.
Football will fill the most seats as usual, and PJ Anderson’s group brings plenty of experience into a season that should be much improved from 2024’s 3-7 campaign. Senior Cruz Ruoff returns at quarterback while Oumar Thompson will line up behind him in the backfield, and 2024 All-Regional selections in OL Ryan McDonald and safety Jack Mossburg are back as well. The Mustangs have impressed throughout their August scrimmages, and will open their regular season at Justice on Thursday.
Field hockey has been one of Meridian’s most successful fall programs for the past few seasons, reaching the State Finals in 2023 and going 15-3-1 last year before a heartbreaking loss in Regionals prematurely ended their run. Despite the departure of seven seniors, Anne Steenhoek will regroup her squad and have them ready for redemption, led by senior captains Emma Flanagan and Sara Meade while sophomore Baelyn Reinfurt returns in net. The Mustangs will face a schedule full of tough tests, with their home opener set against Mount Vernon on Wednesday.
One of the best stories at Meridian last fall was the new boys’ volleyball team, which rebounded from an 0-7 start in its inaugural season to finish 7-11 with a Regional playoff appearance. In Year 2, head coach Shannon Hladky will have another challenge in front of him as he turns over much of his roster, though three key players will return in Marshall Vogel-Rogers, Niko Kruse-Lawson, and Charlie Santee. The Mustangs will begin their season with a trio of road contests on opening week, beginning Tuesday at Westfield.
The girls also have high hopes on the volleyball court, after finishing last season 13-11 and qualifying for Regionals. Sahana Cushman, Adelyn Pye, Hannah Rosenbusch, and Sophia Chan highlight a core that returns some solid production for head coach Milena Racic, and they’ll open their season at home on Monday against Skyline.
The co-ed cross country squad will join in on the action in mid-September, as will competitive cheer in October. For cross country, Jeff Buck and Jessica Hollinger’s groups both look to build upon successful campaigns a year ago, when the girls finished fourth in Regionals while the boys were seventh. Michelle Malheiro and William Anderson will headline the respective teams, Malheiro having qualified for States individually last fall.
Finally, the team that enters the season in the best position of all is Tim Sample’s golf club, which looks to defend its State championship. Noah Peng, Henry Brown, and Alex Way have all graduated from last year’s team, but Atticus Kim, Christian Hammond, Drew Fishel, and Charles Griffith headline a group that is already off to a strong start with a pair of third-place finishes in two District mini-tournaments. In addition to the co-ed team’s schedule, Meridian will host a girls’ invitational in Gainesville on September 8th, an event that Sample is responsible for putting together.
