Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
FORT WAYNE - Racing in what its members called "the calm before the storm", Warsaw's 3,200 relay team thundered to a fourth-place finish with a time of 7:55.46 in Thursday evening's regional at Wayne High School in Fort Wayne.
It was their best of time of the season by nearly 20 seconds and was good enough to qualify the team for the June 3 state finals at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Despite the soggy conditions and scattered showers that plagued the early part of the race, it couldn't damper what the Tigers did.
The group of Baxter Burnworth, Matt Campbell, Steve Robinson and Kyle McNulty, along with John-Wesley Maierle in the long jump and Leonard Wells in the shot put, will represent Warsaw while Wawasee's Ryan Smythe advanced in the 3,200.
"We were always capable of this," said Burnworth. "Like our coach said, we hadn't run a complete race yet."
Warsaw distance coach Jim Mills was quite proud of his 3200 relay team's effort.
"It's unbelievable," said Mills. "Everybody put it all together. They had the ability all year to run this sort of race."
Now the goal for the Tigers is to medal at state and break the school record of 7:53.43, which was set 1998. Warsaw coach David Hoffert was on the team that set that school record.
This year's 3,200 relay squad is less than two seconds behind the time set by Hoffert and his cohorts.
"This feels really good," said Campbell. "It makes all the hard work worth it."
"All the crappy practices we had, this makes it worth it," joked McNulty.
"It was perfect, " said Robinson of the way he and his teammates ran. "It's the best we've run all year."
Norwell won the 3,200 relay with a time of 7:50.30, breaking the regional record of 7:54.68 set by Northrop in 1998.
Maierle overcame less-than-stellar conditions to finish third in the long jump. Maierle recorded a jump of 21-6.50 while Skyler Mattox of Angola won with a 21-11.
"Conditions weren't good out there," said Hoffert. "But J.W. survived for another week."
Wells had a distance of 51-6 in the shot to finish second behind Jeremy Johnson of Fairfield. Johnson won with a 55-7.50.
Fort Wayne Northrop won the overall competition with a score of 77 while Elkhart Memorial finished second with 67 points. Wawasee finished sixth with 29 points while Warsaw scored 26 points to finish eighth.
Smythe was the only Warrior to advance to the state finals, finishing third in the 3,200 in a time of 9:42.79.
Robert Moldovan of Northrop and Jaurice Dye of Memorial finished first and second, respectively, in the two-mile race.
Smythe beat Dye in the 3,200 at the Northern Lakes Conference Meet at Concord two weeks ago.
Tom Brown finished fourth in the 300 hurdles Thursday for Wawasee.
The top three from each event, along with those meeting state standards, advance to the state finals.
Team scores - FW Northrop (FWN) 77, Elkhart Memorial (EM) 67, FW Bishop Dwenger (BD) 49, Norwell (N) 44, FW Wayne 37 (FWW), Wawasee 29 (Wawa), FW Harding (FWH) 28, Warsaw (War) 26, FW Snider (FWS) 24, Garrett (G) 23, Angola (A) 21, Homestead (H) 20, West Noble (WN) 19, Fairfield (F) 19, East Noble (EN) 18, FW North Side (FWN) 17, DeKalb (D) 15, Elkhart Central (EC) 11, Leo (L) 10, Carroll (C) 9, Prairie Heights (PH) 9, Heritage (H) 9, FW Concordia (Con) 8, Northridge (N) 6, Jimtown (J) 6, FW Canterbury (Can) 5, Concord (C) 45, NorthWood (NW) 4, Lakeland (L) 4, Goshen (G) 3, Central Noble (CN) 2
Note - top three individuals and relays advance to the state finals as well as any relay or individual meeting the standard of performance in the regional trials or finals.
100 - 1. Arthur Wims (FWN) :10.74, 2. Jeremy Rodgers-Cromwell (FWH) :11.07, 3. Jakeem Gregory (FWS) :11.25, 4. Luke Hofmeyer (D) :11.35, 5. De'Andre Binion (FWW) :11.40, 6. Michael Foster (C) :11.41
200 - 1. Wims (FWN) :21.50, 2. Marcus Grayson (FWW) :22.61, 3. Ken Perkins (H) :22.62, 4. James Baumgartner (F) :22.85, 5. Kent Biller (NW) :22.93, 6. Thomas Collet (WN) :22.96
400 - 1. Cameron Eckert (N) :48.69, 2. Travis White (FWN) :49.12, 3. Martin Stotenour (EM) :49.21, 4. Rodgers-Cromwell (F) :49.64, 5. E. Brown (Wawa) :49.90, 6. Justin Bigelow (D) :50.30
800 - 1. Greg Huffman (BD) 1:57.49, 2. Casey Johnson (FWN) 1:58.15, 3. Ladd Mercer (N) 1:58.27, 4. Jeff Wysong (WN) 1:58.44, 5. John Wainwright (L) 1:59.10, 6. Klayton Reed (N) 1:59.24
1,600 - 1. Randy Placencia (G) 4:18.93, 2. Ben Reifenberg (BD) 4:22.44, 3. Jaurice Dye (EM) 4:22.94, 4. Matthew Hammersmith (PH) 4:32.60, 5. Chuck Wysong (WN) 4:32.88, 6. Michael Niezer (BD) 4:33.00
3,200 - 1. Robert Moldovan (FWN) 9:12.81, 2. Dye (EM) 9:40.24, 3. Ryan Smythe (Wawa) 9:42.79, 4. Placencia (G) 9:47.13, 5. Kyle Schmidt (Con) 9:51.60, 6. Cody White (H) 9:53.55
110 hurdles - 1. Christopher Brautzsch (FWW) :14.28, 2. Zachary Chapman (EN) :14.63, 3. Ross Bauman (J) :14.82, 4. Benjamin Battjes (EM) :14.92, 5. Tom Brown (Wawa) :15.00, 6. Dominque White (FWS) :15.13
300 hurdles - 1. Battjes (EM) :38.20, 2. Mattox (A) :38.82, 3. Champman (EN) :38.98, 4. T. Brown (Wawa) :39.62, 5. Ryan McDonald (Wawa) :39.94, 6. Ross Heckber (H) :39.94
400 relay - 1. Justin Geans, Brandon Russell, Quentin Walker, Arthur Wims (FWN) :42.14, 2. Harding :42.51, 3. FW Wayne :42.51, 4. Concord :42.89, 5. Warsaw :42.90, 6. DeKalb :43.36
1,600 relay - 1. Geans, David Petty, Travis White, Wims (FWN) 3:17.23, 2. Elkhart Memorial 3:19.18, 3. Norwell 3:23.03, 4. Wawasee 3:23.73, 5. Homestead 3:26.27, 6. Angola 3:26.87
3,200 relay - 1. Cameron Eckert, Luke Diehl, Reed, Ethan Roebuck (N) 7:50.30, 2. Bishop Dwenger 7:51.19, 3. Elkhart Memorial 7:54.56, 4. Warsaw 7:55.46, 5. Snider 7:58.38, 6. Carroll 8:02.31
High jump - 1. Travis Brum (L) 6-9, 2. Lance Moe (G) 6-7, 3. Tyronne McKinney (FWN) 6-5.25, 4. Aaron Klanski (N) 6-5.25, 5. Gregory Duvall (EM) 6-03, 6. Jeff Feipel (H) 6-3
Pole vault - 1. Kevin Schipper (BD) 15-6, 2. Matt Schipper (BD) 15-0, 3. Jonathan Hall (H) 14-4, 4. Corey Shank (Can) 14-4, 5. Logan Ray (FWW) 14-0, 6. David Ludwig (FWS) 14-0
Long jump - 1. Skylar Mattox (A) 21-11, 2. Artis Chambers (FWS) 21-11, 3. J.W. Maierle (War) 21-6.50, 4. Nathan Palmer (EC) 21-5, 5. Charles Dodwell (FWN) 21-5, 6. Justin Davis (H) 21-3
Shot put - 1. Jeremy Johnson (F) 55-7.50, 2. Leonard Wells (War) 51-6, 3. Javarias Jackson (EC) 50-9.75, 4. Terrence Robertson (FWH) 48-8.25, 5. Ryan Kammeyer (FWC) 48-1, 6. Isaiah Boyer (G) 47-11.75
Discus - 1. Chandler Harnish (N) 164-3, 2. Brock Williamson (EM) 157-9, 3. Ian Harris (FWN) 150-10, 4. Jacob Naylor (WN) 150-8, 5. Luke Johnson (FWN) 150-02, 6. Leonard Wells (War) 149-10
