Both as individuals and as Warsaw's one-two punch, freshman Ashley Erba and senior Cendall Ogle have had quite a cross country season.
Saturday, in the state finals at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, the Lady Tigers' dynamic duo will run their last 5,000-meter race together."Cendall is amazing," said Erba. "She's the best teammate you could imagine. I'm really going to miss her."
Saturday's boys 5K is scheduled for 1 p.m., with the girls race at approximately 1:45 p.m.
If Erba and Ogle were characters from a Tom Cruise movie, they might be Maverick and Goose from Top Gun.
Erba is flashy front-runner, Maverick, while Ogle is the perfect wingman.
"Ashley is very comfortable running out front," said Warsaw girls coach Jerry Gackenheimer. "Cendall is the type of runner that stays with the pack and moves up later in the race."
More times than not this season, Erba and Ogle finished first and second, respectively.
They did so in a number of dual and triangular meets, as well as the Tiger Invitiational, Northern Lakes Conference Meet, Elkhart Central Sectional and the Elkhart Central Regional.
In last week's New Haven Semistate, run in extremely wet and muddy conditions at IPFW, Erba finished first in a time of 18:57, while Ogle was ninth in a time of 19:32.
Erba has won every race she's competed in this season. Her season-best time of 18:25 is the fifth-best time in the state this season.
"My goal for Ashley is to finish in the top 10," said Gackenheimer. "I think she can do better than that, I really think she can finish in the top five. And I think the front runners are gonna have a little blonde right on their heels, if she's not in front of them."
Asked about her high school success coming so early, Erba answers in a very modest and soft-spoken fashion. Her driving force is a disappointing 8th grade season last year.
"In 8th grade, I started out well, I just didn't improve," said Erba, whose father Scott Erba is the Warsaw girls track coach and in an Ironman Triathalon Hall of Fame in California. "I thought my times would get better and they just didn't."
So what did Erba do about it? She ran, and ran, and ran some more.
To get ready for her first high school cross country season, the freshman phenom ran nearly 300 miles this past summer.
"Going into this year, I really wanted to do well," Erba said of her quick success. "It's been really cool. It's really cool that Cendall is going to be at state with me."
Participating in the state finals is nothing new for Ogle, who also runs track and advanced to to state as a freshman, sophomore and junior.
In just her first season of high school cross country, Ogle advanced to state as a junior and finished 63rd.
Gackenheimer believes his steady senior will do better this time around.
"My goal for Cendall would be the top 25," said Gackenheimer. "I know Cendall wants to do better than last year. She wasn't happy with her place and time. As far as Warsaw girls go, I think only two girls have finished better than 63rd at the state meet."
One of those girls is Erica Ridderman, who finished 18th at state as a senior last year.
Ridderman now runs cross country for the Indiana Hoosiers.
Last season, Ogle was the Lady Tigers' No. 2 runner behind Ridderman.
This season, she found herself chasing down a talented freshman.
The fact that she isn't the main attraction on Warsaw's team this year hasn't bothered Ogle at all.
"That stuff doesn't bother me at all," said Ogle. "What I wanted this year was for the team do well. I really wanted the team to get out (of the semistate.). That's what I'm going to miss, is the team."
Ogle's season-best time of 19:00 is the 38th-best time in the state this season and is the ninth-best time among seniors.
"That's Cendall," said Gackenheimer. "She's so dependable in the meets and at practice. She was our No. 2 runner behind Erica Ridderman last year, and this could have been her year, but she was No. 2 behind Ashley Erba. And that sort of thing doesn't bother Cendall. She's our No. 1 leader on the team, and that says a lot about her."
