GOSHEN - The Warsaw Tigers and Wawasee Warriors boys track and field teams weren't in contention for a sectional title Thursday, but they did advance some individuals to next week's Kokomo Regional.
The Northridge Raiders controlled things at the Goshen Sectional, winning the tournament with 142 points, followed by Elkhart Memorial's 100, while Warsaw finished fifth with 45 and Wawasee placed eighth with 37."We had a lot of (personal records), it's just too bad it's at the end of the year," Wawasee coach Scott Lancaster said. "A lot of those kids aren't moving on, but we're pretty pleased."
Wawasee did advance seniors Anthony Reyes in the 110 and 300 hurdles, Jesse McBride in the discus and Rex Henry in the pole vault.
In the pole vault competition, Henry's performance was more than overshadowed by Elkhart Memorial's Peter Roach, who set a new school and sectional record by clearing 15-11, eclipsing the old sectional record 15-1.5 set by Warsaw's Kyle Boley in 2003.
While Henry wasn't setting any records, he was able to continue his prep career.
"The pole vault was a nice surprise, because he's struggled a little bit," Lancaster said of Henry, who tied for fourth place by clearing 12-feet, six-inches. "He put himself in a position to jump clean. If you can jump clean in the pole vault or high jump, that gives you a huge advantage."
The top four finishers in each event at sectionals qualify for regionals, with qualifiers from the Goshen Sectional moving on to Thursday's Kokomo Regional at 6 p.m.
While Henry's advancement may have surprised Lancaster, Reyes' third- and fourth-place finishes in the 300 and 110 hurdles, respectively, did not.
Even battling an ankle injury, Reyes ran the 110 hurdles in a time of 15.32 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 40.28, punching his ticket to regionals.
"He's still only at about 70 percent," Lancaster said about the senior. "He can't even walk without limping on it. For him to come out here and do what he's done is pretty remarkable."
Another remarkable performance was by Warsaw junior Victor Sapara-Grant, who placed second in the long jump (22-0), second in the 200 (22.92) and third in the 100 (11.45).
"Victor's something special," Warsaw coach Matt Thacker said. "All the stuff that's talked about, with mental toughness, Victor displayed it for the younger kids tonight. He definitely put on a show for them to learn by."
Prior to the 7 p.m. finals, Sapara-Grant was busy competing in long jump, while also taking time out to run in the 100 and 200 preliminaries, meaning he was a busy guy.
"He doesn't quit," Thacker said. "He loves to compete, and he's something special we have. Hopefully, when he's done being with us, his legacy will be as a fierce competitor."
Last year, Sapara-Grant competed at state in the long jump, and at Thursday's meet, he had hoped to clear 23 feet, but his hectic schedule made that tough to do.
"The 100 and 200 heats, kind of made me miss my long jump goal," Sapara-Grant said. "I wanted to get 23 feet today, but couldn't get it. That was a bit of a downer. Otherwise, I like running all the events. I really enjoy the competition."
Sapara-Grant stole the show for the Tigers, who also had their 3200 relay team of sophomore Trevor Callahan, freshman Spencer Rheinhardt, junior Jeremiah Stichter and freshman David Johnson qualify for regionals, finishing fourth in a time of 8:16.67.
The performance by Thacker's young distance runners gave him optimism for future Warsaw teams.
"You can definitely tell we're building depth," Thacker said. "Cameron Fritzel (got a personal record) in the shot put, at 43 feet, and he's a freshman. Spencer matched a PR again in the 800 (2:03.41)."
"You can just see the depth accumulating," he added. "The experience is coming through, and that's just exciting to see."
The last local product to get out of the sectional was McBride, whose 154-3 toss in the discus gave him third place, but Lancaster knows he'll need to do even better at the regional.
"He did what he needed to do, Lancaster said. "Hopefully, we can get him throwing the (state) standard this week. If he's going to have a shot to get to the state meet, he's going to have to throw the standard. It's a deep field."
