The question marks are gone for the Warsaw boys cross country team heading into the regional competition on Saturday.

Warsaw head coach Jeff Grose has had a few since the beginning of the year. First it was the Tigers' No. 2 runner Will Woodward, who had problems early in the season with an injury. Then, last week at sectionals, it was No. 1 runner David Hoffert. Hoffert, one of the best runners in the area, was not feeling well and finished fifth among Warsaw runners and 17th overall.

"(Hoffert) went and saw a doctor and he had a sinus infection," Grose said. "He's been feeling a lot better. He practiced at full speed (on Wednesday). We look for him to lead the group like he's been doing all season. Everyone's excited about that. We didn't quite know what was going on or if he would recover, but the doctor said he should be fine by Saturday."

Grose also said that Woodward is back to full strength and can be a large contributor to the team on Saturday.

"Will has done a wonderful job," Grose said. "He's definitely one of our top runners. Every week he's been getting faster and that's the whole idea. We're hoping he can contribute. With David and Will, those guys can really do a nice job for us."

If Hoffert and Woodward are back to full strength, it takes some pressure off of Greg Patrick, Justin Rice and Don Kennedy. However, Grose still thinks that those guys may be the most important ones.

"#I'm not as worried about David and Will," Grose said. "I expect them to do well. The big thing for our team this week is our three, four and five runners. They have to perform well. If one of those guys has a bad day, they can add 10, 20, 25 points to our score. That cannot happen. Those guys all have to have good performances like they did last week. We're going to need them."

Grose feels that this year's team has a better shot at advancing to the semistate than last year's squad did.

"Our goal is to qualify (for semistate)," Grose said. "It looks like we are right there. If we run a good race, we might be able to get out of the regional. I think that would be a great accomplishment for these kids. We don't think we can get by DeKalb. They've beaten us all year. Goshen has (beaten us), so right there, we're two down. Last year we had a chance, but not like this year's group. Sometimes you go into a game, and you just know that it doesn't look good. With this group, we're right there. It could happen."

Grose, in his second year of coaching cross country, refuses to take much credit. If anything, he gives credit to some of the other coaches that these runners have had.

"I get a lot of help from Coach (Paul) Sibray," Grose said. "I still continue to learn from the guys that run and Coach Sibray continues to help me out. I've been involved with athletics all my life and a lot of things carry over, but it's a different sport, and I'll be the first to admit that I have a lot to learn. My goal is to be honest with the kids and try to find out from those that do know what's going on. That's usually Coach Sibray or other literature that I'll read. I don't think that I've hurt the team as much, because we do have Coach Sibray. These kids, they've been running all these years and they've had some good coaches, like Stan Seiss and Coach (Troy) Akers on the track team. (The runners) have been around the block a few times so they know what to do. If I had a really young team, I might be causing some problems. But these kids are experienced and have some really good leadership from the seniors all the way down to the freshmen."

Grose has gotten help from Sibray in making some adjustments to the training schedule over the last few weeks. Instead of running long distances, the team has been running shorter distances more times. Grose explained the reasoning.

"Right now, this time of year is to maintain," Grose said. "You don't want to kill them throughout the week. You don't want to run them too hard. You just want to help keep them in shape. That's my understanding. That way they get a full day off or a lot of rest and they feel like they have more energy on race day."

Warsaw will compete at Ox Bow Park on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the regional. [[In-content Ad]]