Fall sports season is beginning to enter crunch time at Meridian High School, with the golf team already well into their postseason and everybody else gearing up for the home stretch. Let’s take a look at how everyone did last week.

The football team fell 41-22 to James Wood last Friday, dropping to 3-3 on the year. They led at halftime and hung tight for three quarters, but the opponent wore them down on the ground as the night progressed. PJ Anderson’s squad has been dealing with some key injuries and will look to rest up during the bye week before returning to action at Brentsville on October 17th.

Golf moved onto Regionals after successfully defending its District title, and was successful once again. Drew Fishel, Charles Griffith, Atticus Kim, and Era Inglis-Nela led a balanced attack for Tim Sample’s group, beating Culpepper County by 11 strokes to capture the Region 3B crown and punch their ticket to States. Their quest to repeat as State champions will conclude at the Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg on October 13th.

It was a successful week for both volleyball programs, which each hosted Justice last Monday night for a doubleheader and each won in three sets. That was the boys’ only contest of the week, as they improved to 3-11 after starting 0-10. The girls then traveled to Warren County the next night to pick up another win in four sets, improving to 9-5.

Cross country was in action twice, traveling to Skyline for a District meet and then heading to the Gettysburg Invite over the weekend. At Skyline, Lydia Christian and Matthias Selle led the girls and boys, respectively. In Gettysburg, William Anderson placed 30th overall and broke Meridian’s all-time course record with a time of 16:46. Alba Selle finished 88th overall to lead the girls, with Madeleine Sherwood close behind in 104th. The co-ed squad will have some time off before concluding its regular season at the Third Battle Invitational on October 18th.

Field hockey was off this past week, remaining 9-1 on the year.