What has already been a season to remember for the Warsaw cross country teams got even better on Saturday, as both the boys and girl Tiger runners had a day to remember at the Marion Invite at Indiana Wesleyan University. The boys used five top 25 performances to win their race, while the girls finished in fifth.
The Tiger boys were able to narrowly edge out Fort Wayne Concordia 71-76 to take home the gold. Sophomore Jackson Gackenheimer led the way for Warsaw, finishing fifth with a time of 16:00.3. Junior Tyler Mimnaugh took 11th place at 16:25.7, senior Tyler Swartz finished 14th with a 16:34.7 time. Rounding out Tiger runners in the top 25 were junior Rick Orr (16:41.3) in 17th place and sophomore Miles Rager in 25th at 16:50. In total, 28 Tiger runners set personal records in the race.
“For this being their second hard race in four days, we were impressed with today’s team performance,” Coach Matt Campbell said.”Gack is emerging into a star and a strong frontrunner, something the Warsaw boys team hasn’t seen in years. This is the deepest roster in school history.”
On the girls side, the Lady Tigers were led once again by Joey Rastrelli, who used a personal-best time of 17:58 to finish in fourth place. Her teammate, Eden Metz, finished at 20 minutes even for a 24th place finish. Melissa Howett took 36th place with a time of 20:33, while Elizabeth Vander Bie rounded out Lady Tigers in the top fifty by finishing 47th at 20:58.
Both Tiger teams have over a week to prepare for their next race, the second round of NLC super-duels on Tuesday, September 12.