Warsaw responded by shattering two meet records in the first event, sending a message to the rest of the field. The Tigers went on to break away from a tight field through most of the meet to win their second Max Truex Invitational, breaking Elkhart Central's three-year hold on the trophy.

Warsaw scored 137 points, while Elkhart Central ended second with 122 Friday.

"A pessimist would say that the competition at this meet was not as strong," Akers said. "But we set four meet records, and when you look at the strong Elkhart Central teams that have been here in the past, we still had to run well to break those records."

The unique scoring system used in the meet kept an emphasis on depth. Each of the eight schools at the event had two entrants in each event. Those two times or distances were added up and the resulting total became each school's result.

Warsaw's 3200 relay team of David Hoffert, Jon Dock, Justin Rice and Greg Seiss set a new meet record with a time of 8:03.19 in the opening event. With that number added to the other Warsaw time for a grand total of 16:43.79, the Tigers broke the team record in the meet for that event.

Elkhart Central was disqualified in that first event because of some bumping for positioning with Warsaw and it put the defending champs in an early hole, which they never really recovered.

After six of 16 events, Warsaw led Elkhart Central by just two points and Fort Wayne Snider by only eight points despite setting another record, this time in the 400. Jon Hill and Shaun Mudd combined for a time of 1:41.98, breaking a record set by Kokomo in 1994.

Event seven is where the Tigers took off.

Warsaw's discus team of Jarod Leasure and Steven Fribley threw a combined 267-feet,13-inches to win that event and jump out to an eight-point lead.

The 800 team of Seiss and David Hoffert ran away with an easy win in record time as the Tigers moved ahead by 17 points. Seiss and Hoffert combined to run the event in 3:57.44.

In the long jump, Warsaw took second behind the leaping ability of Scott Shepherd and Aaron Chabot to extend the lead even further.

By the time the 3200 team of Will Woodward and Greg Patrick finished second, the Tigers were well on their way to the trophy.

Warsaw clinched it with a 1600 relay time of 7:01.95 that was identical to Elkhart Central's time, along with a second-place finish in the 200 from Hill and Mudd.

"There is no way to single out any one kid," Akers said. "I'm prone to saying that, but tonight that was definitely the truth. The kids knew that they had to pull their own weight, but that they had someone else to rely on too. It was a great meet for a young team."

Akers said his athletes had added incentive to win this meet.

"The kids really wanted to dedicate this meet to someone who has been a big part of the track program, Dave Fulkerson. The seniors want to take the trophy over to Dave's house this evening."

Fulkerson, Warsaw's athletic director, was recently released from the hospital.

Akers went on to say that he has not witnessed a meet in his two years at Warsaw in which as many of his athletes competed at their peak ability level at the same time.

"These kids are doing a lot of the same things that those good girls teams at Wawasee did," Akers said. "There are a lot of success stories tonight."

Warsaw, who ended the dual season with an undefeated 8-0 record, will be at Concord Thursday in the NLC championships, beginning at 5:15 p.m.

MAX TRUEX INVITATIONAL

WARSAW 137, ELKHART CENTRAL 122, FORT WAYNE CONCORDIA 104, PENN 91.5, FORT WAYNE SNIDER 87, FORT WAYNE NORTH 84, DEKALB 61.5, KOKOMO 48

Times and distances are the sum of each team's two entrants

3200 relay - 1. Warsaw 16:43.79, 2. Penn, 3. Snider, 4. North, 5. DeKalb, 6. Concordia, 7. Kokomo, 8. Elkhart Central

110 hurdles - 1. North (Chapman, Hunter) :30.72, 2. Snider, 3. Elkhart Central, 4. Penn, 5. Concordia, 6. Warsaw (Horn, Taylor), 7. Kokomo, 8. DeKalb

100 - 1. Concordia (Scott, Smith) :22.92, 2. Penn, 3. Warsaw (Hill, Esquivel), 4. Elkhart Central, 5. Snider, 6. Kokomo, 7. DeKalb, 8. North

1600 - 1. DeKalb (Miller, Pepple) 4:31.2, 2. Elkhart Central, 3. Snider, 4. North, 5. Warsaw (Dock, Rice), 6. Penn, 7. Concordia, 8. Kokomo

400 - 1. Warsaw (Hill, Mudd) 1:41.98, 2. Elkhart Central, 3. Penn, 4. North, 5. Kokomo, 6. Snider, 7. Concordia, 8. DeKalb

300 hurdles - 1. Elkhart Central (Thomas, Outlaw) 1:21.34, 2. Warsaw (Esquivel, Fussle), 3. Snider, 4. Penn, 5. Concordia, 6. Kokomo, 7. DeKalb, 8. North

discus - 1. Warsaw (Leasure, Fribley) 267-13, 2. Snider, 3. Penn, 4. Elkhart Central, 5. Concordia, 6. DeKalb, 7. North, 8. Kokomo

800 - 1. Warsaw (Seiss, Hoffert) 3:57.44, 2. DeKalb, 3. Concordia, 4. Kokomo, 5. Penn, 6. Elkhart Central, 7. North, 8. Snider

Long jump - 1. North (Chapman, Williams) 41-5.75, 2. Warsaw (Shepherd, Chabot), 3. Elkhart Central, 4. Kokomo, 5. Penn, 6. Concordia, 7. DeKalb, 8. Snider

3200 - 1. Penn (Baloun, Burk) 20:20.3, 2. Warsaw (Woodward, Patrick), 3. Hardway (Snider), 4. Elkhart Central, 5. North, 6. Kokomo, 7. Concordia, 8. DeKalb

Pole vault - 1. North (Holland, Bodkin) 23-0, 2. DeKalb, 2. Snider, 2. Warsaw (Sheetz, Quance), 5. Concordia, 6. Penn, 7. Kokomo, 8. Elkhart Central

1600 relay - 1. Warsaw 7:01.95, 2. Elkhart Central

400 relay - 1. Concordia 1:29.62, 2. Elkhart Central, 3. Penn, 4. Warsaw, 5. Snider, 6. Kokomo, 7. DeKalb, 8. North

shot put - 1. Elkhart Central (Searer, Bossnack) 91-05, 2. Concordia, 3. Warsaw (Farmer, Elliott), 4. Penn, 5. DeKalb, 6. North

200 - 1. Concordia (Scott, Smith) :45.78, 2. Warsaw (Hill, Mudd), 3. Elkhart Central, 4. North, 5. Snider, 6. DeKalb, 7. Kokomo

New Max Truex Records

3200 relay - Warsaw (Hoffert, Dock, Rice, Seiss) 8:03.19

110 hurdles - North (Chapman, Hunter) :30.72

400 - Warsaw (Hill, Mudd) 1:41.98

800 - Warsaw (Seiss, Hoffert) 3:57.44

High jump - Kokomo (Heath, Gump) 12-3

3200 relay - Warsaw (Two teams) 16:43.79

Individual Awards

Distance - Matt Miller (DeKalb)

Sprint - Rolando Scott (Concordia)

Field - Caran Chapman (North)

Overall - Rolando Scott (Concordia) [[In-content Ad]]