Tigers To Compete In 3 State Events At State

Justin Bellamy is not the only Warsaw athlete to advance to the state finals.

Warsaw's track and field team will compete in three events in Friday's state finals at Carroll Stadium.

Warsaw's 3,200 relay team, which won the sectional (7:58.72) and regional (7:58.65), is seeded fourth. The 3,200 relay team advanced to the state finals last year and took fourth. Three of the four runners -Êsenior Justin Rice, junior Greg Seiss and sophomore Jon Dock -Êreturn from last year's team. The newcomers are senior Juan Garcia and sophomore Rob Peters. Peters serves as the alternate.

"All four kids have to click on all cylinders," Warsaw coach Troy Akers said. "Last week only Greg Seiss improved his time. We don't want to rely just on Greg this weekend."

Garcia joined the track and field for the first time as a senior.

"Juan Garcia is a find," Akers said. "He had a nice soccer eason. I ran into Juan working in the attendance office and started talking to him. You lose David, you scratch your head and wonder who will replace him. He's a find."

Seiss also will compete in the 800 at the state finals. He took fourth in the 800 with a time of 1:56.22 in last week's Fort Wayne Regional. Seiss ran the 800 at last year's state finals but did not place. Northrop's Brett Tipton won the 800 at this year's Fort Wayne Regional with a time of 1:54.70.

Warsaw's other entrant is junior Justin Bellamy in the high jump. Bellamy won the event at the sectional and the regional with 6-8 jumps and is seeded third at the state finals.

Akers believes Bellamy and his 3,200 relay team offer Warsaw the best chances for state champions since the late 1980s. This late in the season Akers makes sure practices are short and informal.

"A lot of times people think harder is better," Akers said. "My first couple years of coaching, I may have thought that too. You get to this point in the season, you make sure kids come in fresh. Fresh bodies, fresh minds. If we take the track that way, we could have two state champions."

In addition to the 3,200 relay and 800, Warsaw competed in one other event at last year's state finals. Jon Hill took ninth in the 400. Hill was on the team this season but hamstring problems that plagued him for more than a month slowed him.