Mother Nature was the only thing that slowed the Warsaw Lady Tigers in their quest for an 11th consecutive Northern Lakes Conference track and field championship. Slated for Tuesday, the NLC Meet was postponed because of rain. Under sunny skies 24 hours later, the Lady Tigers cruised to the team title with 196 points. Northridge was a distant second in the team standings with 119 points, followed by Concord (108.5), Plymouth (71), Goshen (70), Wawasee (68), NorthWood (66) and Elkhart Memorial (32.5). Warsaw won all three relays and 10 of 16 events overall. The Lady Tigers showed off their depth once again, as they had two competitors score points in 10 of the 13 individual events. So dominant was Warsaw that in five events the Lady Tigers finished first and second, or first and third. “It’s fantastic on a night like tonight to have the experienced girls like Audrey Rich, Samantha Alexander, Brooke Rhodes, Emily Bailey, girls who have been here four years, to perform the way they did,” said Warsaw coach Scott Erba. “And then to have all the new girls, the new pieces to the puzzle, it’s just great. “Abbi Curtis had a fantastic night, she PRed in the 200 trials, PRed in the finals, PRed in the long jump, and was on the record-setting 4x100 team. She had a huge night. “On the other end of it, our girls in the 800 haven’t been varsity girls ... Dayton Groninger had never run track before, and Emma Bohnenkamper didn’t run last year, and they ended up going 1-2 in the 800. They did what the coaches asked them to do, and just had fantastic performances.” Rich was a part of three wins for the Lady Tigers, as she won the 100, and then teamed with Maygan Bellamy, Alexander and Curtis to run a record-breaking time of 49.41 seconds in the 4x100. Rich left the meet to perform in the school’s choir concert, then returned to run the anchor leg of the winning 4x400 team, partnering with Bellamy, Remi Beckham and Rhodes. Warsaw’s first-place 4x800 team included Rhodes, Hannah Dawson, Anna Craig and Allison Miller. Other individual winners for the Lady Tigers included Alexander (200, long jump), Bohnenkamper (800), Mia Beckham (1600, 3200) and Alexie Day (high jump). “Across the board, whether it was on the track or in the field events, we had multiple girls score in almost all the events,” said Erba. “The funny thing is, earlier today I wasn’t feeling the best, and right now I’m feeling the best I’ve probably felt, after this meet. It was one of those things, having some frustrations, and then seeing them come out and perform like this tonight ... we are going in the right direction.” Wawasee’s evening was highlighted by Katlyn Kennedy’s winning distance of 38-8 1/2 in the shot put. The Lady Warriors’ only other top-three finish of the meet came from Alexis Manges, who finished third in the discus at 99-4. Warsaw and Wawasee will be in action again Tuesday in the Warsaw Sectional.
