The Warsaw boys cross country team celebrates after advancing to state. Photos provided by warsaw-tigers.com
The Warsaw boys cross country team celebrates after advancing to state. Photos provided by warsaw-tigers.com
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It was a very successful Saturday morning for the Warsaw cross country program at the IHSAA semi-state races held at New Prairie High School. Both the boys and girls teams secured top six finishes and will advance to the state championship at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute this weekend.

The Tigers took fifth place on the boys side with a team total of 183. Chesterton took first place with a score of 91. Senior Ryun Hoffert was Warsaw’s top finisher, coming in 26th place and a time of 17:10.5. Sophomore Tyler Mimnaugh was not far behind with a time of 17:16.2, finishing in 32nd. The Tigers’ third place finisher was junior Tyler Swartz in 44th with a time of 17:25.8.

On the girls side, Warsaw came in third place with a team score of 144. Valparaiso came in first with a total of 105. The highly anticipated matchup of Tiger junior Joey Rastrelli and New Prairie senior Lillian Zelasko lived up to the hype, with Zelasko getting the edge and winning the race. Rastrelli finished in third place with a time of 18:43.4. Senior Mikayla Mimnaugh finished in 35th as the second best scorer for the Tigers with a time of 20:25.4.

Other local athletes competing in the event individually were Manchester sophomores Kadence Fox and Ayla Cashdollar. Fox took fourteenth place and Cashdollar finished in 30th. Triton’s Jocelynn Faulkner earned a 40th place finish and three spots behind her was Tippecanoe Valley’s Chesnee Miller.

The girls race will be held at 12 p.m. Saturday with the awards ceremony to follow. The boys race will kick off at 2:30 p.m. with awards following.