ELKHART - The Warsaw boys and Wawasee girls cross country teams were close, but just missed out on their chances to advance out of the Elkhart Central Regional Saturday at Ox Bow Park.

Both squads finished sixth, which just misses the top five teams advancing to the Manchester Semistate.

It was particularly frustrating for the Wawasee girls, which tied for the fifth-best team score with Goshen at 129, but lost the tiebreaker of the Warriors' sixth-place runner finishing after the Goshen No. 6 runner.

"The front of the pack ran well, but my sixth runner wasn't where she should have been, and it cost us a chance to advance out of regional," Wawasee coach Betsy Hoffman said.

"Every one of our top six have run in the 16s, and they should have been there today," she said. "If they were there today, we would not be watching everybody else go onto semistate."

The Warsaw boys got a taste of exactly how tough and deep the regional field was. The Goshen Redskins, who won this year's Elkhart Central Sectional, finished in fifth just ahead of the Tigers.

"The other teams are really good," Warsaw coach Jeff Grose said. "Goshen opened my eyes when they finished fifth. It is tough. I thought maybe we could sneak in there and upset one of those teams. It just didn't happen."

Warsaw's No. 1 runner David Hoffert came back this week after suffering from an illness last week and finished 13th, four spots better than what he did at the sectional. The rest of the Tigers' roster ran about as well as they did at the sectional when Warsaw was runners-up to Goshen, but with the added team depth from the likes of East and West Noble, DeKalb and Westview, it was just too tough for the Tigers.

"I was hoping we could get our 3,4 and 5 guys higher than what they were," Grose said. "They were in the 30s and 40s, and that is too many points. It was still a great effort. They came and ran a good race. There is just nothing you can do against these teams.

"I was just hoping they would get the chance to compete at the semistate as a team," he said. "They will run with David this week in practice, and hopefully we will have an opportunity to do well next week."

No area team will be going to the Manchester Semistate from the Elkhart Central Regional. Heading to the semistate as individuals will be Hoffert, Wawasee's Katie McCauley and NorthWood's Brooke Tobias. Hoffert finished 13th in the boys race, while McCauley was fourth and Tobias 10th in the girls race.

Girls

1. WEST NOBLE 49, 2. NORTHRIDGE 77, 3. DEKALB 124, 4. WESTVIEW 124, 5. GOSHEN 129, 6. WAWASEE 129, 7. ANGOLA 148, 8. EAST NOBLE 172, 9. NORTHWOOD 195, 10. ELKHART MEMORIAL 216

Top 15 - 1. Nicole Williams (WV) 14:36, 2. Maria Harriman (WN) 14:46, 3. Emily Harriman (WN) 15:38, 4. Katie McCauley (Waw) 15:40, 5. Kelly Henderson (D) 15:40, 6. Joni Sheldon (G) 15:45, 7. Gretchen Custer (WN) 15:51, 8. Courtney Sheffield (A) 15:52, 9. Olivia Osborne (A) 15:53, 10. Brooke Tobias (NW) 15:53, 11. Julie Latzke (C) 15:54, 12. Monica Spangle (NR) 15:56, 13. Val Taft (NR) 15:56, 14. Jill Farlow (D) 15:57, 15. Kelli Lipps (EC) 15:59

Other Wawasee results - 30. Laura Lundin 16:39, 36. Megan Hoffman 16:53, 43. Alisha Henderson 17:11, 51. Krista Bestul 17:25, 56. Brenda Wong 17:33, 73. Mary Cockburn 19:04

Other NorthWood results - 39. Andee Morris 17:21, 65. Teresa Schuller 18:06, 68. Anne-Marie Zell 18:26, 69. Stephanie Carner 18:38, 74. Lindsay Carlin 19:19

Warsaw result - 23. Summer Boyd 16:26

Boys

1. EAST NOBLE 65, 2. DEKALB 68, 3. WEST NOBLE 84, 4. WESTVIEW 97, 5. GOSHEN 111, 6. WARSAW 144, 7. WAWASEE 176, 8. ELKHART CENTRAL 189, 9. LAKELAND 200, 10. ELKHART MEMORIAL 216

Top 15 - 1. Matt Miller (D) 16:26, 2. Matt Stout (L) 16:32, 3. Kevin Chandler (EN) 16:37, 4. Phil Yoder (EN) 16:37, 5. Michael Watts (WV) 16:38, 6. Rusty Niccum (WV) 16:49, 7. Ryan Johnson (D) 16:51, 8. Jason Floyd (EC) 16:55, 9. Kurt Pepple (D) 16:59, 10. Russell Simon (WN) 17:00, 11. Khelli Leitch (WN) 17:01, 12. Merlin Miller (WV) 17:04, 13. David Hoffert (War) 17:05, 14. Jeff Payne (G) 17:05, 15. Kris Allen (G) 17:06

Other Warsaw results - 23. Will Woodward 17:26, 33. Greg Patrick 17:45, 35. Justin Rice 17:48, 43. Don Kennedy 18:00, 61. Chris Gackenheimer 18:42, 64. Michael Jenks 18:45

Wawasee results - 25. Pete Melendez 17:31, 30. Dusty Lytle 17:42, 36. Jeff Moerchen 17:49, 39. Jerid Stoffel 17:56, 50. Rob Chalfant 18:13, 69. Ken McIntosh 19:17, 72. Peter Wagoner 21:13

Top 15 individuals and top five teams advance to the Manchester Semistate. [[In-content Ad]]