FORT WAYNE — After finishing second to Fort Wayne Concordia the previous two seasons, the 11th-ranked Warsaw girls cross country team won Saturday's Fort Wayne Northrop Bruin Invitational. In a meet featuring two races, a freshman/sophomore and junior/senior event, each individual grade is scored, but the top five overall runners per team get their times combined for a final team time and score. With that format, the Warsaw Lady Tigers won the meet convincingly, posting a team time of 1:40:44, while No. 18 Concordia was second in 1:46:27. "At most meets, whether you get first by two seconds or first by two minutes, there's no difference," Warsaw senior Ashley Erba said. "This is a fun one, because the faster the girls run, the bigger the finishing result." And the fastest girl at the meet, just as she has been for over a year now at every meet she's been in, was Ashley Erba. The defending cross country and 3200-meter state champion, as well as a national champion, Ashley Erba was the meet's top female performer, with a time of 17:43, eclipsing her own course record of 18:37 set last year. "At a meet like this, it's really nice to have a 17:43 leading the way," her father/coach Scott Erba said. Also at a meet like this, the girl who's light years ahead of the competition is just practicing. "With a lot of these meets, especially in the early season, I just want to run well, but looking more at how strategies can help me," she said. "We had some dual meets last week, where I was cruising the first two miles and then for time, really hit the last mile. Today, I went out there and had a fast first mile, fast last mile and cruise the middle mile. It's just doing things to make it a little more interesting, a little more fun." If it wasn't for Ashley Erba, the meet may have been a lot more controversial because of a a mistake in the freshman/sophomore race. Leading the entire way, Warsaw freshman Hannah Dawson entered the woods toward the end of the race with a huge lead. However, a runner from DeKalb exited the woods all by herself, while Dawson came out in second. Following discussions, it was discovered Dawson was directed to go around a larger loop in the woods, which was designated for runners on their first lap instead of their final. The mistake by an official left Dawson running farther, but to rectify things, Dawson was awarded first place with a time of 20:19, one second faster than the DeKalb runner, even though she would have won by much more. It allowed Warsaw’s coach to use the situation as a learning experience for his whole team. "It's better now than at a sectional, a regional or later on," Scott Erba said about the mistake. "It's about making sure they know where the course is. They need to know where they're at and how much more they have to go. They need to know where they're going rather than just following someone in front of them or relying on someone else to direct them." Dawson's win helped the Warsaw freshmen take first, just as the seniors did, while the juniors and sophomores were third. "She's doing a great job," Scott Erba said about Dawson. "Going from 3 (kilometers) to 5K, she's done a good job with learning and so has (freshman) Emma Hayward. We're looking at developing them over the course of four years. We may be pushing them harder in some ways. I told them, 'You're not going to be doing the same things as Ashley Erba. Ashley Erba wasn't doing the same things as a frehman that she's doing now.' That way, they can see what's appropriate for them. Each year, they'll know they'll be getting a little more and more, instead of 'Hey, it's your first year let's throw everything at you.'" Another girl helping the team is senior Sarah Ray, who finished second in the junior/senior race in 19:39. In her first year on the cross country team, Ray is hoping to fill a huge void left after the departure of junior Anna Bearss and sophomore Ellie Bearss, who moved into the Rochester district. Finishing 11th at the state meet last year, the Lady Tigers looked primed to make a deeper run this year, returning Ashley Erba as well as the Bearss sisters, as Anna was 15th at the state meet and Ellie was 142nd. Instead, the girls have moved, but the Warsaw coach vows his team's goals have held steady. "Our expectations are the same as they were last year," he said. "The expectation is to go out to win the conference and we're going to a new sectional and regional (at Culver Academies). Last year, we won our sectional and our first ever regional, so we'd like to repeat that. It's going to take better running, and we know that, but the girls are excited about that." Next up for Warsaw is Tuesday's home meet at Grace College's Miller Field against Plymouth and Goshen.
