SYRACUSE -ÊTogetherness. As you speak with the Wawasee boys cross country team, it's one of the first things you notice.

They joke around. They are comfortable with each other. They spend their free time together. They even finish each others sentences.

"The guys do a lot together outside of meets and practices," said Wawasee head coach Dave Stookey. "They always seem to be together. They are a close-knit group."

"We do a lot together," said Forest Somers. "We're always together on the weekends."

"Yeah, we usually stay at someone's house on weekends," said Rob Chalfant. "We play lazer tag, watch movies, and play Nintendo. We're pretty close."

"Our unity and togetherness is definitely a strength," said Jerid Stoffel. "We have grown closer throughout the season, and that has made us a better team. Now the freshmen know everyone else better, and we work together much better.

"As a team, we've had our ups and downs, some good and some bad, but our times have gradually gotten better. We have progressed very well as a team."

For the most part, the Warriors stay together on the course as well. The top four runners, Chalfant, Stoffel, Ryan Stichter and Dusty Lytle, usually finish close together in a pack. However, the fifth man is still up in the air after Flaco Perales suffered an injury earlier in the season. Perales was not able to compete in the NLC meet last weekend, and he will be out for the sectional. Should the Warriors make it out of sectional, Perales is questionable for the regional.

"Our running strength is our top four," said Stoffel. "The top four are strong, but with Flaco's (Perales) injury, we are struggling in the fifth spot."

"Our goal for sectional is to get the fifth man up," said Chalfant."That will be our biggest challenge."

Last weekend, Wawasee placed second in the NLC meet to Northridge. That meant they had to share first place overall with the Raiders. When they step on the course this weekend, the Warriors will be all business.

"We didn't run what we are capable of in the NLC," said Chalfant. "We did not do as well as we had hoped to."

"We're happy with tying NLC, but we should have done better," said Pete Melendez. "We're hoping to do well this Saturday at sectional."

"Our goal is to win," said Stoffel. "We are going to do our best, and hopefully that will be good enough to win."

"I think we have a pretty good team," said Stookey. "We share the goal of getting to state. But we have to move one step at a time. We'll start with sectional and go from there." [[In-content Ad]]