GOSHEN - For Chris Lambert and David Hoffert, it was not necessarily a night to remember. Lambert, a Wawasee sophomore, ran the second heat of the 300 hurdles. He was second in the heat before tripping and falling over the last hurdle.

Hoffert, a Warsaw junior, was one of the favorites in the 800. On the second lap, the top four were in one group. Hoffert began to make his move around the outside, but his legs got tangled with another runner. Hoffert went down and ended in last.

Lambert and Hoffert got a chance to avenge the fall and both would do just that. In the final event of the night, the 1600 relay, the Tigers picked up their only first place of the night as Hoffert ran a strong third leg to hold off Elkhart Central. Wawasee placed third in the event with a strong showing from Lambert, Brad Brown, Ryan and Rustin Mikel.

"Chris Lambert, if he wouldn't have fallen over the final hurdle," Wawasee head coach Kerry Murphy asked? "We figured he was right behind Jimtown. Jimtown finished third, so he would have been right there, and he's never run track before."

"We had a disappointment that turned into a blessing," Warsaw head coach Troy Akers said. "David Hoffert tripped in the 800 and finished last, but we ran the fastest 1600 relay time of the year."

Elkhart Central ran away with the meet with 165.33 points. Warsaw finished tied for sixth out of the 10 teams at the meet, and Wawasee finished ninth. But this really was not about the team results for either team. Much more important was the experience for the younger athletes of competing against top notch competition such as No. 1 in the state, Elkhart Central.

"When you come in against teams like this," Akers said. "Your maturity level really shows. We had some kids that had big butterflies. This is the biggest meet they've ever run in. The young kids, to compete in a meet like this, was key, and they held up pretty well. There are kids who didn't move along (to regionals) that had their personal bests and now they know what they can do. They're already buzzing about what they've got to do."

"We're looking at rebuilding next year," Murphy said. "Having a lot of young guys do so well tonight really does a lot for us. We have a good nucleus of sophomores, and hopefully, kids will get excited about it. It was great for us."

As far as individuals are concerned, it was the Jon Hill show for Warsaw. The sophomore runner placed second in the 200, ran the anchor leg of the 1600 relay team that won, and ran on the fourth-place 400 relay team. In the 100, Hill needed to place in the top two in his heat or get one of two next best times to move onto the finals. He placed third in his heat and just slid into the finals with one of those two extra spots. He took advantage of the chance and placed third in the finals.

"It was definitely good to see how Jon Hill could compete with (Ryan) Clark of Elkhart Central," Akers said.

The 3200 relay team showed marked improvement. With the addition of P.J. Wiley, Warsaw set a new school record of 8:06.55 to place second.

"The 3200 team ran their best time, by far, of the year," Akers said. "The last couple of meets, we've run horribly in that. But Wiley's leadership there was key, and Gregg Seiss has been out with a stress fracture. The two kids in the middle really ran well. Our best had been an 8:13, but we hadn't done that since the Goshen Relays. Last week, we ran an 8:40-something. One kid didn't make a difference. It was a matter of the kids' confidence level, and knowing that one of their leaders is out, they just didn't run as well."

Wawasee had some surprises to look forward to next year also.

"The biggest excitement I had tonight was in the 400 relay we got fifth place," Murphy said. "That team didn't win a single race all year. They didn't beat anybody all year. Then, last week in the conference they came through and placed fourth. Their times just came down and down and down. There was a lot of that tonight."

Although Warsaw and Wawasee each placed in the lower half, both teams will send a number of team members to regionals on Thursday. The top four individuals and relay teams in each event will move on to the Fort Wayne Wayne Regional. [[In-content Ad]]