For Warsaw, Trip To Semistate Has Been An Eight-Year Wait

Eight years have passed since the Warsaw girls cross country team competed in the semistate round of the state tournament.

Now the only thing that separates the Tigers is a good night's sleep.

The Tigers will be one of 20 teams to compete in Saturday's Manchester Semistate, with only the top five teams advancing. The top 15 individuals also advance. The good news for the Tigers is, Manchester is a course they know well and have had success at.

"We ran at Manchester during practice Tuesday and did pretty well," said Warsaw coach Paul Sibray.

"Some girls like certain courses and I think some of them like Manchester."

Yes, some of them like it. One of them really seems to like it.

"I had my best time ever at Manchester," said Summer Boyd. "I ran a 15:06 at the Manchester Invitational."

Warsaw has knowledge and experience of the course on its side, but with their last semistate appearance coming when Boyd was a third grader, they just don't have the tournament experience. That's where Judith Haynes, coach of the last Warsaw team to advance to semistate comes in.

"I would just tell the girls to do the very best they can. They're young and there's always next year," said Haynes.

"It'll be a different experience for them they'll see a lot of hoopla, photographers, and that sort of thing."

But a lot of hoopla isn't what Warsaw is accustomed to.

"We're not used to getting the attention," said Sibray.

"I told the girls, along with the football team, we're the only team left. It's unusual because we usually get overlooked, and don't have as much tournament success as some of the other teams at the high school."

And much like the football team, the girls cross country team has had to start over and rebuild the program. Ask Sibray, it hasn't been easy.

"I teach at an elementary school, so it's hard for me to promote the program," he said.

"I have to leave that up to the girls. They just tell people how much fun we have, and how close we are."

Promote the program they have done. Three years ago Warsaw had five runners. In a cross country meet scores are based on a team's top five finishers. Now the Tigers' team roll call is at over 20.

Members of other area teams will also be competing tommorrow morning. Angel Puckett of Whitko along with the Wawasee boys team will be running at Manchester. Triton High School will send Mason McIntyre, Nathan Gephart, Reghan Kreft and Shelly Miller to compete individually at the New Prarie Semistate.