FORT WAYNE - Viewed as an individual and a team sport, among the local competitors in Saturday's New Haven Cross Country Semistate at IPFW it was the individuals that won out.

With their teammates only able to cheer them on, Wawasee's Rachel Stichter and Luke Stoffel competed as individuals and advanced to Saturday's state finals meet at the Indiana Unversity Course in Bloomington.

Warsaw's boys squad competed in the team competition and finished 16th out of 20 teams with 376 points.

The top five teams and top 15 individuals advance to Saturday's state finals.

With her third-place time of 14:18 in the girls 4,000-meter race, Stichter, a junior, advanced to the state finals for the third straight year.

"She got pretty nervous and didn't have a good race," said Wawasee girls coach Grace Stichter, Rachel's aunt. "She was a little disapointed. She's strong enough and a good enough runner, she just got a little worked up and was nervous. Everybody expects her to do well and she expected to do well, she feels pressure. I think she can go to state and get in the top five, that's what we're shooting for."

Stichter won the semistate last year when it was at Manchester High School, and then went on to finish 11th in the state finals meet. As a freshman, Stichter finished sevent in the state finals meet.

Only a junior, Stichter has to her credit three individual Northern Lakes Conference championships, three sectional championships, three regional championships and a trio of state finals appearances.

"Rachel had a tough race but she'll be ready for state," Grace Stichter said.

The only other local girl competing, Tippecanoe Valley senior Laura Lash finished 37th in a time of 15:50.

Fort Wayne Concordia's Alissa McKraig won the individual championship with a time of 13:56, four seconds ahead of runner-up finisher Amy Kempf of Carroll. Concordia's Adele Mitchell was fourth, while Northridge's Megan Jackson rounded out the top five.

Though Concordia's top three runners finished first, fourth and seventh, it was Northridge that won the girls team title, with its five scoring runners tallying 62 points.

DeKalb, which finished second to Northridge by five points at last week's Elkhart Regional, finished second in the semistate with 89 points.

Rounding out the top five girls teams and advancing to state were Concordia (119), Homestead (172) and Fort Wayne Northrop (200).

In the boys race, Warsaw failed to advance as a team with its 16th-place finish nor did the Tigers advance any individuals with a top 15 finish.

A team already troubled with injuries, Saturday the Tigers were without freshman Matt Campbell, who was the team's second finisher at the regional.

"We ran on even less cylindars today," Warsaw boys coach Jim Mills said. "Matt Campbell told me on the bus he didn't feel good, so we had to run without four of our top seven, but the guys came and competed. We've got a lot of good, young kids, so the positive was that we got to run here and get experience. We expect to be back."

As he has all season, senior Ryan Holbrook led the Tigers Saturday, finishing 44th in a time of 16:52.

Other Tiger finishers included senior Jacob Gall in 72nd (17:17), junior Jeremy Blackburn 91st (17:33), sophomore Kyle McNulty 101st (17:43), junior David Compson 138th (18:42), senior Peter Mansfield 139th (18:42) and William Olds 150th (19:29).

Wawasee's Stoffel advanced to state with a third-place time of 15:42, two seconds behind runner-up Kyle Walsh of Western.

Fremont's Alan Hiner, last week's Elkhart Regional champion, won the semistate in a time after covering the 5,000-meter boys course in 15:27.

Northridge's Ken Collins and Fort Wayne Northrop's Brennon Plotner finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the team competition, Northrop took the semistate trophy home after tallying 84 points, while Huntington Norht was second with 102 points. Northridge finished third with 148 points, while West Noble had 164 points and Fort Wayne Snider 186 to claim the last transfer spot.

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