AKRON - It only rained for about two hours in Akron Tuesday, unfortunately, it was during the two hours the Wawasee Warriors and Tippecanoe Valley Vikings track and field teams competed.
Weathering the elements, the Warriors dominated the meet, as the boys won 91-32 and the girls loaded the buses with a 76-46 victory.
"It's kind of hard to pick out anyone who did anything tremendous, because the wind's blowing so hard," Wawasee coach Scott Lancaster said. "The rain was also coming down, and it got so cold."
Competing in the cold, wet conditions, Wawasee's Crystal DeLaFuente won the 200 (28.6), 400 (1:11.2) and high jump (4-4).
Wawasee's Stephanie Kuhn also won both throwing events, taking the discus with a 86-5 and the shot put with a 31-7.
For Valley, coach Ivy Lyvers was pleased with the efforts of Katie Newsome and Stacie Hoffman.
In the 100 hurdles, Hoffman took first in 17.4 seconds, followed by Newsome's 17.5, while Newsome did win the 300 hurdles in 53.09. Hoffman also took first place in the long jump, clearing 15-2.5 feet.
"I was really pleased with the girls overall," Lyvers said. "I had some kids run in races they haven't ran before, and they looked strong."
Taylor Gast (100), Abby Higgins (800) and Molly Wright (3200) also picked up individual wins for the Vikings.
On the boys side, Wawasee's Tyson Searfoss claimed three first-place finishes, winning the 200 (23.8), long jump (19-1.25) and high jump (5-10).
For the Valley boys, Alex Weaver picked up multiple wins, finishing the 1600 in 4:51 and the 3200 in 10:37.
"I was pleased with the kids that ran tonight, and the times they ran," Lyvers said. "We were missing a lot of kids for many different reasons, and I look forward to seeing what they can provide us as well. But with this weather, I'm pleased with what I saw."
After getting his team loaded on the buses immediately after the finish of the 1600 relay, Lancaster was also pleased, but is also aware that some of his young runners must improve.
"Our goal is to take those young kids to score once we get into conference," Lancaster said, referring to the upcoming Northern Lakes Conference portion of the schedule. "Otherwise, we're just not going to have a fighting chance. We're trying everything we can to get them as much experience as possible. Our conference is so tough, from top to bottom, we'll get trounced if we don't get some people along."
Wawasee's next attempt to get its female athletes experience is April 13 at Columbia City, with the boys hitting the track until April 14 at Plymouth.
